Living in Peru : your everyday companion

By
Nathan Paluck

• Energy Ministry reserves two sites for petrochemical investment
• Chinese firm Minmetals will extract at Cajamarca mine by 2012
•  Grupo El Comercio looks to increase exports with new $US 12 million press

Petrochemicals

Two coastal sites in Southern Peru are officially reserved for petrochemical production, announced the Energy and Mines Ministry. Now it's up to the regional governments of Moquegua and Arequipa to attract the neccesary investment, Energy Minister Pedro Sánchez told El Comercio.

The plants would use natural gas as the base to produce petrochemicals like fertilizers, ammonia and polyethylenes. Two other petrochemical sites are being contstructed in the state of Ica, one by US-owned CF Industries and the other by Nitratos del Perú, a company majority-owned by the Peruvian Grupo Brescia. The investment in the two Ica projects are estimated at $US 2.5 billion, reports El Comercio.   

Mining

State-owned Chinese conglomerate China Minmetals will begin construction next year at the Galeno copper mine in Cajamarca, a northern state. They plan to begin production in  2012, averaging 144,000 tons of copper per year for 20 years, reports Gestión.

Minmetals is China's largest base metal company, with 2008 revenues of 180.9 billion yuan ($US 26.5 billion at the current exchange). The company has two publicly-traded units, Minmetals Development Co Ltd (quote) and Minmetals Resources Ltd (quote).

(Picture of Galeno site from vectoreng.com)

Print Industry

This week Grupo El Comercio unvieled its new, high-tech printing press. The media group, which also owns the dailies Perú.21, Gestión, Depor, and Trome, spent $US 12 million on the press, manufactured by the German firm Lithoman de Man Roland.

"With the current capacity, we're not just going to meet local demand, but we'll also be able to expand our exports of books and print material," said José Antonio García Miró Miró Quesada, president of Grupo El Comercio's Board, quoted in Gestión. He said 25% of Grupo El Comercio's current production is destined for export to the Latin American market.

In Brief

Italian company Astaldi won a $US 116 million contract to construct the Huanza hydroelectric dam, 130 km from Lima on the Pallca River. For a project summary, see this link.  

Doe Run Perú is seeking to suspend work at the La Oroya mine through January 2010. The company needs to reach agreements with suppliers, a company vicepresident told Gestión. To see the recent troubled history of Doe Run, which included the killing of a police officer during a workers' blockade last month, read LivingInPeru's news coverage here.

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