Mr Staake, what can you tell us about logistics and Latin America?

Question:
“Mr Staake, what can you tell us about logistics and Latin America?”

The logistics world is currently discussing the “Tren Bioceánico”, the once-thought unrealisable railway line across the breadth of Latin America from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Efforts are ongoing in Germany for it to assume what might even be a leading role there. The line could link Ilo in Peru with Santos in Brazil, whilst creating a new boom en route in Bolivia and Paraguay. The easing of custom duties along such a trajectory is not utopian thinking. And at the destination, new opportunities beckon in terms of networking national economies, people and cultures so as to counter segregation strategies.

This gigantic project is reminiscent of China’s “One Belt, One Road”, which Cathay is currently developing together with European partner states as a “New Silk Road”. duisport, the largest logistics hub in the heart of Europe, is its partner in various subprojects, and, furthermore, both origin and destination on the European side.

Given its close connection to the economic centres of the continent, the world’s largest inland port could also bring its extensive experience to bear on the South American side. Over the existing maritime trade routes from Latin America and the hub of duisport, the two largest transcontinental trade routes, the Tren Bioceánico and the New Silk Road, could be networked along with their concomitant markets. Thinking big is obviously coming into style. China, in any case, has long since been bidding along in Latin America.

Erich Staake

CEO of Duisburger Hafen AG, LADW Vice Chairman and LADW’s “Mobility & Logistics” co-spokesman

Sunday Brief N°5

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