CL Port Valparaíso shipping

Port of Valparaiso

Terminal Pacífico Sur (TPS), the main concessionary in the port of Valparaiso is warning that a proposed new law on worker breaks could seriously affect the competitiveness of Chilean ports.

TPS’s general manager Francesco Schiaffino warned that Chile’s so-called ‘Short law on ports’ could cut productivity by as much as 20 per cent. The legislation, which is going through parliament, proposes to synchronise breaks at the country’s ports in order to ensure that port workers make full use of their rest periods.

Currently, the ports operate a shift system to ensure the continuity of cargo transfer services, while they grant their workers alternately rest for collation. TPS wants these agreements to be made individually and based on the needs of each facility.

Mr Schiaffino claims this could have a US$4bn impact on Chile's economy due to lost working time.

“That is, a tremendous decline in efficiency which affect all the elements that comprise the supply chain, such as importers, exporters, transporters and citizens in general,” he said.

Schiaffino added that the new law could also reduce the income of terminal operators by as much as 46 per cent – equivalent to US$62.4m per year, because it includes plans to reduce the tax charged on cargo handled.

Previously this was levied at a standard rate of US$0.30 per tonne of freight, but under the new law the rate would be reduced o US$0.20 per tonnes of general cargo and US$0.10 per tonne of dry or liquid bulk. The result, say port operators would mean the revenues raised from the tax would fall to US$15.6m per year in the 2015-18 period, based on annual volumes of 120m tonnes.