Gateway to the Pacific

In San Antonio, just over 100 kilometres west of Chile’s capital, Santiago, the port spirit is palpable. Much of the city’s activity revolves around maritime operations. In fact, every link of the complex logistics chain is present here, and working in the sector unites families across generations, making this occupation a tradition.

One of the five concessionaires of the Port of San Antonio is San Antonio International Terminal (STI), which operates the Molo Sur berthing front and started its contract on 1 January 2000. It is the country’s most significant terminal, handling about 35 per cent of Chile’s total containerised cargo, and it is recognised as being one of the most efficient terminals in Latin America.

STI is equally controlled by SSA Marine and SAAM Terminals. The latter is a prominent port services operator in Latin America with 10 strategically located port terminals supporting foreign trade. The region’s diverse industries benefit from these locations. Additionally, SAAM Logistics extends comprehensive logistics services to importers and exporters, leveraging its expertise and capacity to meet customer needs.

In August 2023, Hapag-Lloyd successfully concluded the acquisition of the port terminals and logistics operations of SM SAAM. This encompassed the transfer of 10 port terminals across Chile, the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia and Ecuador, along with off port warehouses and local-market logistics operations.

STI in a nutshell

Today, the port terminal, with a capacity of 1.6 million tonnes, has connections with more than 30 ports around the world. STI was the first terminal in Chile to handle 1 million TEU in a year, and today – a decade later – it continues to do so.

Thanks to its 930-meter continuous quay and its 15.5-metre draught, STI is the only terminal in Chile capable of simultaneously receiving two Neo Panamax vessels, which are 367 metres long. In total, STI covers an area of 32 hectares, equivalent to about 45 football fields.
 

A family affair

Given the city’s port culture, many of those who work in the terminals today have a family relationship with the occupation. This is the case with Miguel Loyola, the operational management in charge at STI, who grew up watching ships enter and leave the bay from the window of his room. His mother works at STI, and two of his brothers work at other port terminals.

Miguel serves as the direct link between the administration and the supervisors. He focuses on strengthening the terminal’s safety culture and aligning the supervisors. During his 17 years working in the port, he has held a range of positions. For example, as a mobilizer, he was responsible for carrying out work on board and alongside ships. Then he worked as a cargo verifier in the yard and, later, as a team leader. In 2014, he became a ship supervisor, a position he held for seven years. Then, in 2021, he was promoted to operational management in charge.

As a logistics technician who is finishing his studies in engineering studies, Miguel is proud of his career growth and appreciates the opportunities his workplace has given him. “Those who want to make a career can do so, as the port makes it possible,” he says with a smile. While walking among the terminal’s cranes and containers, he is greeted by his colleagues. He enjoys his work – and it shows. To this day, he is glad that he accepted a friend’s offer to work at the port, noting: “It was the best decision I could have made!”

Miguel feels content in his role and enjoys the various challenges at the same time. “My main challenge is to reduce the accident rate of workers and to maintain a high safety standard,” he explains. Miguel seeks to have a single safety criterion in the terminal and to optimise operations – both of which are fundamental objectives for STI.

Planning ahead

Every machine and structure has a key function in port work. Someone who knows everything about this topic and can answer any question is Claudio Sotomayor. Leaving behind the sea air, the sound of the engines, and the vast space of the dock, we find Claudio in an office within the administrative area. As an Infrastructure and Ports Submanager, he is in charge of maintaining all physical infrastructure as well as overseeing acquisitions and renovations. 

Claudio has been working in the port for nine years and, unlike many of his colleagues, is from Chiloé, more than 1,200 kilometres south of San Antonio. “I arrived as a young person fresh out of university and had the great desire to do things well,” he recalls.

Currently, his focus is on STI’s investment plan, which includes investments of USD 66 million, which will strengthen operations for the future and continue delivering the best service to foreign trade. This is the most significant investment to develop the industry in Chile and includes new equipment, infrastructure and technology.

At the beginning of 2023, the terminal replaced two cranes by acquiring two new super-post Panamax ship-to-shore (STS) cranes, which was also part of the modernisation efforts. The controlled collapse of the old cranes, which had been operating since the beginning of the terminal, was one of Claudio’s most notable experiences while working at the port.

He remembers this operation as being highly complex and very entertaining for him as an engineer. Experts from different countries came to support it, he notes, and an exhaustive review of every detail was necessary. “Our calculations had to be precise to avoid damaging the infrastructure,” he says proudly, as the procedure went exactly as planned. Today, the new cranes are in operation and move an average of 30 containers per hour.

Female power in the terminal

At the opposite corner to the dock is the gate control, the office that controls what enters and leaves the port. It is run by María Cristina Alvarado, the Area Superintendent, who is better known as “Cristi”.

Cristi jokingly says she is “part of the terminal’s inventory”, as she has been working there for 24 years. She has held various positions, including as a documentalist, checker and dispatcher. In 2011, she was promoted to supervisor and, since 2021, she has been in her current position. 

As one of the women with the longest careers at STI, Cristi knows most of the workers and has trained many of her colleagues. However, her start in the port world was not easy. “Men were used to working among themselves,” she recalls. “We women had to become strong, and we had to build character to deal with them.”

While she admits that there was respect among colleagues, Cristi says that some of her male colleagues found it more difficult to adapt to the arrival of women. They didn’t use appropriate language with women, she notes, and sometimes they treated women inappropriately, too. “They felt we were invading their space,” she explains. “But now things are totally different.”

Today, the relationship between men and women in the port is professional, and the female labour force within the industry is growing every day. At present, the port has more than 100 women in both operational and administrative positions.