Omar Narrea
Researcher, Center for China and Asia-Pacific Studies
A year ago, the eyes of the world were on Chancay to witness the inauguration of a new bridge to Asia. In a country where major projects often face long delays or endless interruptions, seeing the port completed on time for the presidential ceremonies of the APEC summit sent a clear signal: many more changes were possible. The Chancay Observatory of Universidad del Pacifico has been tracking the intensity and direction of these transformations.
In its first year of operations, the impact on cargo and the port network continued at an accelerated pace. Chancay became the fourth-largest terminal in Peru’s port system. Its two container berths handled 223,000 TEU and, together with the two multipurpose berths, moved 3 million tons—surpassing the first-year goal of 200,000 TEU.
Additionally, two clear dynamics have emerged in port operations. The first involves transpacific shipping services: one of the three services offers a direct Chancay–Shanghai route, with 43% of its transported cargo made up of Peruvian products bound for Asia. The second dynamic involves the three feeder services that collect cargo from South America’s Pacific ports and move about 90% transshipment cargo, strengthening the role of both the new port and Peru’s port network as a logistics node for the main ports of Ecuador and Chile, as well as regional ports in Colombia, Ecuador, and Chile.
However, one year after its inauguration, the transformations visible at sea have not been matched with the same intensity on land. We have mapped that between June 2024 and September 2025, 15 key institutional measures were implemented to leverage the momentum of the new port. Regulatory changes prioritized logistics infrastructure (40%), followed by actions concerning the city and its residents (27%), governance (20%), and the business sector (13%). In the first case, most regulations were approved in the months prior to the inauguration (November 2024), including the creation of the Chancay Customs Office and the extension of port concessions to reinforce the system. The recently passed Law on Private Special Economic Zones (PSEZs) reflects support for investment.
Instead of being addressed, the vulnerabilities of the port city have increased: earlier this year, the collapse of the bridge over the Chancay River overwhelmed the province’s hospital network, forcing more than half of the severely injured to be transferred to hospitals in Lima. The National Infrastructure Authority was tasked with a portfolio of 21 projects which, to date, have no allocated budget. And although an Autonomous Authority for Chancay was established, it has not played an active role in overcoming barriers such as the lack of approval for urban development and territorial planning instruments—measures that would lay the foundations for Greater Chancay, a local proposal for orderly city growth.
In the port’s second year of operations, with the expected increase in cargo and the arrival of new investments, it is time to update the “city and citizen” agenda with concrete budgets and commit political effort to building the governance bridges required to construct the public works the port city urgently needs.
