Business forum and lithium promotion are at the top of Minister Grau and InvestChile’s agenda on their second day in Berlin

Written by Denisse Vasquez | Jun 12, 2024 8:10:16 PM

The Minister of Economy will hold a series of meetings organized by InvestChile as part of the presidential tour of Europe.

Minister of Economy, Nicolás Grau, and InvestChile Director, Karla Flores, held a series of meetings today in Berlin as part of the presidential tour of Europe, which will include visits to Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, and France.

During the morning, Minister Grau and the Director of the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency participated, together with over 120 representatives of leading German companies and industry associations, in the Chile-Germany Economic Forum: Strategic Partners for Global Challenges. The event was organized by InvestChile, export promotion agency ProChile, the Chilean Embassy to Germany, and Lateinamerikainitiative. The forum was opened by the President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, and also included presentations by Ingo Kramer, President of Lateinamerikainitiative, and Rosario Navarro, President of the Chilean Federation of Industry (SOFOFA).

Sectoral roundtables on lithium and green hydrogen

Following the event, two parallel sectoral roundtables organized by InvestChile were held. In one, Minister Grau, together with the Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action of Germany, Franziska Brantner, the Director of InvestChile, Karla Flores, and the President of Codelco, Máximo Pacheco, spoke with more than 30 representatives of companies and industry associations that are interested in lithium industry opportunities, with a focus on added value and the recent announcements by Chile’s National Mining Company (ENAMI) and economic development agency CORFO.

“We gave a presentation on critical minerals, both in relation to the National Lithium Strategy, which I presented as Minister of Economy, and then the President of Codelco gave a presentation on the strategy of our main state-owned company operating in both the copper and lithium sectors. On this occasion, major agreements were also signed, including with CAP-Huachipato, the company SMS, CORFO, and the Ministry for Economic Affairs of Germany, in which the importance of working together to produce green steel in Chile with new technologies related to green hydrogen was highlighted,” said Grau.

Similarly, Chile’s Minister of Energy, Diego Pardow, and the Executive Vice President of CORFO, José Miguel Benavente, together with InvestChile’s Investment Commissioner in Germany, Vanessa Séverin, spoke about the opportunities around green hydrogen and the new roadmap presented by the ministry to 45 representatives of German companies.

Meetings with local companies

Following a bilateral meeting between Minister Grau and State Secretary Brantner, in which they discussed the agenda of economic cooperation between both countries, a series of meetings were held with local companies such as Aurubis (mining), AMG Lithium (lithium), and Knauf (construction). This latter company is already present in Chile, having installed its only cement board plant outside of Europe in the Puente Alto area of Santiago, with a view to supplying the Chilean market and exporting to other countries in the region.

In the afternoon, Minister Grau led a meeting with German energy storage systems association Bundesverband Energiespeicher Systeme e.V. and the company Thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions, which was also attended by InvestChile’s Director, the Executive Director of Chilean renewable energy and storage association ACERA, Ana Lia Rojas, and the President of green hydrogen association H2V Magallanes, Juan José Gana.

Regarding the second day of the tour, Karla Flores highlighted that “today we were able to meet with companies that see opportunities in Chile to develop new technologies and innovation. These companies can help us not only to develop the critical minerals and green hydrogen sectors, but can also be key players in closing the gaps that we have in these sectors. The contribution of technology and training by German companies is extremely important, and is one of the best examples of the benefits of foreign investment,” she said.

Following a visit to the Helmholtz Center for Materials and Energy in Berlin, the delegation traveled to Munich to continue their visit to Germany on Wednesday.

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