San Antonio's new reefer factory has managing director

With a letter sent by Peter Nymand, Maersk Container Industry (MCI) CEO –a company part of the  Danish giant AP Moller-Maersk (APMM)-, Chilean Francis McCawley, Contopsa’s current managing director –also a company of the APMM holding-, was appointed managing director of Maersk Container Industry San Antonio S.p.A. (MCIS), recently announced to open in San Antonio.

In the release sent by MCI, Nymand noted McCawley’s vast trajectory with the APMM group, in which he has worked in since 1993, occupying many different positions of APM Terminals’ Inland Services (IS).

When asked about his appointment, McCawley said that he considers it to be “very gratifying but also a great professional challenge, because there is a lot of work to be done, starting from building the company, building the plant, hiring and training the staff, begin operations and finally produce in the amount and with the expected quality. It will require great teamwork. That is why, I am very glad, since the factory will be very good for San Antonio and that gives me personally great satisfaction as I will be leading the whole process”.

McCawley believes that the economic impact for San Antonio will be very important, since it is expected that the factory will employ directly 1,800 people, who will live and spend in San Antonio. Add that to the indirect employment related to supplementary services the factory will require, San Antonio has a very auspicious future ahead.

Reefer factory

The new executive appointment comes after a few weeks ago MCI announced that it would open the first reefer factory in Latin America, to supply the increasing demand in the fresh and frozen product export industry in the region.

To be built in San Antonio, the investment for the factory will be some US$170 million, of which 10 will be for the plot, another 45 for buildings, infrastructure and civil works, 100 for building container building equipment and 15 for other expenses.

It is expected that the factory will begin operations gradually at the end of 2013 and, once it hits its full functions it should reach production of 40,000 reefer containers and some 30,000 reefer machines for regular containers per year, which would make Chile the first maker and supplier of reefer containers in the Latin American region.

By MundoMaritimo