Peru’s investment agency and Shougang Hierro Perú signed a land deal on Thursday 24 September 2026 that clears the main obstacle to a US$404.8 million port terminal on the southern coast, handing a stalled project back to China’s Jinzhao after months of conflict over who gets to control the ground beneath it.
Who Gets the Land
The agreement between ProInversión and Shougang Hierro Perú lets the suspension on the concession be lifted, the site delivered and engineering work begin. The transport ministry, known as MTC, keeps title to the land. Shougang, the Chinese-owned iron miner that has worked Marcona since 1992, commits “expressly and bindingly” not to exercise or assert its rights within the port area. That’s the language of power: one institution keeps the title, another gives up its claim, and the project moves forward.
The concession contract with San Juan Port S.A., part of the Jinzhao group, was signed on 31 March. It was suspended on 16 April because the project area could not be handed over. Part of that land lay inside Shougang’s mining concessions. The company already ships its ore through its own port at San Nicolás, a private terminal for its own ore rather than a public port concession. This new terminal would sit beside that existing control, extending the reach of corporate logistics deeper into the coast.
During the handover on 16 April, Shougang staff blocked access to the site, according to the business weekly SEMANAeconómica. That physical blockage matched the legal one. ProInversión and the MTC argued the land had belonged to the state since 1948, before the Marcona mining concessions. Shougang said its surface rights from those concessions overlapped the port area. A longer delay could have triggered a clause allowing the contract to be terminated, SEMANAeconómica warned in July. ProInversión said the risk was low at the time.
What the Project Delivers
The concession runs for 30 years and covers the design, financing, construction, operation, maintenance and eventual transfer of a multipurpose terminal. EFE reported the full project includes two docks, three berths and equipment for bulk, general and container cargo. Gestión said the first stage covers a pier with two berths, an access bridge, storage and loading systems. Estimates for that first stage differ. Gestión put it at more than US$271 million. Reuters quoted Transport Minister José Tangherlini as saying US$200 million, while Canal N quoted him citing US$127 million.
Construction should begin next year and take roughly two years for the first stage, Tangherlini said. Reuters reported the terminal is expected to become Peru’s third-largest port. That’s a big promise for a project built around mineral export routes and logistics for mining projects, not around the daily needs of the people living in the south.
Jinzhao has already filed a third technical report with Senace, the environmental certification agency, Gestión reported in May. It proposes design changes worth about US$6 million, including two conveyor belts able to move 3,050 tonnes an hour. The port will mainly ship iron and copper concentrates from the planned Pampa de Pongo mine, Gestión reported. It will also handle general cargo, containers and supplies for mining projects. Pampa de Pongo is Jinzhao’s iron project in southern Peru, with a planned investment of US$1.781 billion. The port is part of the company’s wider plan for the area.
Jobs, Funds and the Usual Promises
Luis Del Carpio, who heads ProInversión, said the deal “opens the way” for the investment to become “infrastructure, jobs and new opportunities for families in the south”. Tangherlini said the terminal will serve 29 provinces and 280 districts in Ica, Ayacucho, Arequipa, Apurímac and Cusco. He said it will offer a new logistics option for the south’s productive activities and mining projects. The project also includes a social fund equal to 3% of gross revenue, which will pay for social activities in Marcona district and Nazca province, EFE reported.
La República wasn’t sold. When the contract was signed, the newspaper questioned how much the port would do for the region beyond mineral exports. The government has promised 1,500 direct and indirect jobs in the first five years. ProInversión estimates the 3% fund will raise more than 290 million soles, about US$85 million, over 25 years. La República said such funds often lack clear guarantees on how the money is spent. It also noted that the contract was ProInversión’s first as the granting authority, a new role for the agency.
For investors, the deal clears the way to unfreeze a concession that had been stuck for five months. It also deepens China’s role in Peru’s port network, after Chancay. Reuters said Jinzhao would be the second Chinese company to build and run a port in Peru, after Cosco Shipping Ports. Cosco has operated the Chancay megaport north of Lima since late 2024. Peru is one of the world’s biggest copper producers, Reuters noted. The ministry calls the project a matter of public necessity and utility.
Watch now for the formal lifting of the contract suspension and the handover of the site to San Juan Port. Engineering studies and permits come next, with construction targeted for 2027. The paperwork keeps moving. The people at the bottom are told this is progress.