Chile Forum

Hey guys,

We are an Australian foundry located in Malaysia. We have been looking at relocating for a while now nd had actually visited Chile before.

Apart from container shipping, electricity was a rather problem regaring price and reliability.

Could anyone tell me if this has ben solved as i went to a website of one of the electricity utility people and it seemed quiet cheap, plus there are a number of hydro plants being built which will help in the future.

Also we were thinking concepcion for the location, anyone know about labour there ie. would anyone there work in a foundry?

Thanks

Yea, the Bio Bio hydro dam is near there. Reliability and price for electricity however on the scale that a foundry would need I would not know about. It would need to be studied in some detail. That said, there are a lot of large factories in the area and industrial parks are being setup in both the VIII and IX region. There is a good supply of labor in the area, and I am sure that the people of the region could use the work. There is also a very good transportation system in that area (e.g. trains, ships, highways).

You might want to get in touch with some of the local government development offices and projects in the region. They are tasked with bringing in new investment to the region.

Thanks fior the answer it's very helpful.

Could I impose on you with any of the industrial park names?

I'll do as you suggest also and send an email off to the local council.

Regarding electricity, is there 1 big electrical company that I could get the iundustrial tariffs from that you know of?

Electric companies depend on region. We believe Endesa has the Bio Bio dam in the VIII. Another in the area is ML, an American electric company with parts of region VIII, but they mostly service the North of Chile.

As for the industrial parks, there is one being built on the edge of Temuco. We would have to try and track down the name.

By the way the website where I got the tariff was at

http://www.cne.cl/electricidad/f_regimen.html

Would it be possible for you to tell me if that is what im supposed to be looking at?


Thanks for the help

Haven't had a thing to do with foundries in years, and know nothing about what goes on in Chile, but you might want to consider running your operations at night when rates will be cheapest and pay the night differential for labor cost.

Given the heat, it's also a lot more pleasant running at night rather than daytime, in any case. The local power company might just adore being able to sell you power when most folks are sleeping and don't want any.

Dunno. Might be worth checking out.