After two stopovers in the brand new presidential plane, one in Valencia and another in Kazakhstan in the middle of Central Asia to refuel, Sergio Massa and his entourage arrive tomorrow Tuesday at 12 in Shanghai, 23 this Monday from Buenos Aires.
They will stay in the Westin, crowned by a lotus flower sculpture and a few blocks from the boardwalk of this city, called the Paris of Asia and that looks towards Pudong with buildings of unusual shapes and beautifully illuminated that express the China of the XXI century and that seems to regain strength after a prolonged pandemic that questioned its ability to react.
Massa, together with Energy Secretary Flavia Royón and the head of Enarsa, Agustín Gerez, seeks a concrete commitment from Chinese banks to finance the second tranche of the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline. Sources of the delegation slipped that the negotiations have already started to request US $ 2,800 million that will allow an energy saving of US $ 3,000 million only in that case.
"It pays for itself," say those who accompany the economy minister, hoping that the Chinese will give the OK. They have indications after the shipments of folders with the environmental impact study, the passage permits for the route of the gas pipeline and the technical feasibility. But it is already known: with the Chinese you should never take anything for granted, according to diplomats with long experience in the Asian giant.
According to calculations by the Economy Ministry, there would be total savings of US$ 8.700 billion. It seems like a mirage but when the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline is ready, whose work, of 573 kilometers built in the record of 9 months, is inaugurated on June 20, imports for US $ 4,200 million per year would be avoided. The expansion and the so-called Northern gas pipeline are added, which consists of the reversal that implies that, instead of importing gas from Bolivia, the gas from Vaca Muerta is sent through the same pipeline to the provinces of the Northwest and that they are another US $ 1,500 million in favor of Argentina. In this case there is already CAF financing for 800 million.
The expansion of the Néstor Kirchner is tendered in July and implies a saving of imports of US $ 3,000 million. "We will return to being self-sustaining in gas and generate foreign exchange from exports," they enthuse close to Massa.
They also seek to unlock investments for southern dams. That is why the first meeting will be the company China Gezhouba Group Corporation, the visible face of the dams of the Santa Cruz River, after the decrease in the participation of Eling, the former Electroingeniería.
With Power China, the meeting will have as a common thread a battery of projects with financing. Other meetings are with CET - State Grid, in which the objective of expanding the electric energy transmission system will be addressed.
As for lithium, a huge Chinese interest is guessed. The delegation will meet with Tibet Summit Resources for the development of this mineral along with other firms. And they anticipated that there is a vocation to deploy new investments in the country, given the quality of lithium.
Some of that can be observed in the long journey from Shanghai airport to the city center: there are countless electric cars from Chinese companies and especially Elon Musk's Tesla that carry lithium from Catamarca in their batteries and reveal, in turn, the high purchasing power of a part of the country that accounts for 40 million millionaires, almost an Argentina.
They move on highways that have up to seven different levels and that go through condominiums of houses with towers that seem to be traced from each other.
By the way, the boom in sales of electric vehicles is boosting China's automotive industry that, with that imperial vocation that characterizes them, wants to surpass its Western rivals. The latest available data indicates thatthey sold 596,000 units of electric and hybrid cars last March, 132% more than in 2022. It is estimated that 2023.5 million units will be shipped in China by 5. Currently, 10.1 million hybrid and electric cars are already circulating on its roads. They are needed: air pollution is still very high.