Chile aims to tender concessions worth US$3.6bn before year-end

Chile’s public works ministry (MOP) is aiming to tender 11 concession contracts worth nearly US$3.6bn before the end of this year, with auctions for two hospital PPPs worth US$365mn scheduled for this month alone.

The September tenders involve the US$159mn O’Higgins health network and the US$197mn national cancer institute (pictured) in Santiago, both part of the government’s US$2.5bn PPP plan.

As a whole, the MOP’s new goal for 2021 concession tenders is US$5.6bn, up from US$4.7bn earlier this year. By August, it had launched auctions for six contracts worth US$2.1bn.

The figure surpasses the 1996 record with concession tenders worth US$1.9bn, while also doubling the yearly average between 2010 and 2018 (US$828mn), public works minister Alfredo Moreno told a bi-cameral budget committee.

The O’Higgins health network PPP entails a 70,000m2 hospital for Rengo and a 30,000m2 facility for Pichilemu. 

Meanwhile, the cancer institute entails an 89,000m2 structure that will replace the existing 13,000m2 complex, which was partially destroyed by the 2010 earthquake.

The full list of pre-qualified consortiums for the PPP hospitals program can be accessed here, in Spanish.

2021 TENDERS

October

– route 5 highway, Chillán-Collipulli stretch (US$477mn)
– neurosurgery institute (US$200mn)

November

– Araucania airport (US$105mn)
– Santiago south orbital highway (US$427mn)
– Santiago-Valparaíso highway, route 68 (US$903mn)

December

– tsunami alert system (US$60mn)
– Pie de Monte highway (US$251mn)
– northern metropolitan hospital (US$240mn)
– La Punilla reservoir (US$540mn)

Moreno said the ministry and Italian firm Astaldi agreed to terminate the previous contract for the La Punilla reservoir, awarded in 2016. Works were halted amid the concessionaire’s financial problems and a legal dispute on land expropriations. 

The agreement will have to be approved by the comptroller before a new tender can be launched.