Over the last 10 years, Beijing has unseated the United States as the largest trade partner for South America, devouring its soybeans, corn and copper. The port, majority-owned by Chinese state-owned firm Cosco Shipping, will be the first controlled by China in South America. “The Chancay mega-port aims to turn Peru into a strategic commercial and port hub between South America and Asia,” Peru Trade Minister Juan Mathews Salazar told Reuters. But its widening trade lead — some $100 billion around South America in the most recent annual data — brings extra clout. Nonetheless, several of the people said China’s rise in South America was solidifying despite these headwinds, with the region desperate for financing and foreign currency.
