ICBC has signed with the CAP Group of Chile (“CAP”) a cooperation memorandum regarding financial services for the expansion and sales of Chilean Nordic Iron Ore. According to the memorandum, ICBC intends to provide financing services for CAP to invest in the development of Nordic Iron Ore, and support Chinese mining enterprises to contract projects and invest in equity. At the same time, ICBC also intends to arrange CAP’s pre-shipment financing of iron ore, and, with its controlled ICBC Standard Bank as the iron ore buyer, provide mixed services including commodity transaction, risk hedging, commodity financing, among others.

CAP, established in 1946, is Chile’s largest iron ore producer, with an operation system of overall industrial chain including upstream mining, midstream smelting, and downstream sales. In 2013, CAP produced 11.63 million tons of iron ore and sold 12.86 million tons, of which 61% were sold to China.

In recent years, ICBC has leveraged its integrated and global service network to provide full-suite financial services for Chinese enterprises going global and implementing “One Belt and One Road” strategy. ICBC has so far expanded its overseas network to 42 countries and territories worldwide, becoming a Chinese financial institution with the widest global network coverage. Meanwhile, by taking equity stakes of the Standard Bank, ICBC indirectly extends to 20 African countries, forming a global service network across Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, Americas, and Australia. In Latin America, ICBC (Argentina), ICBC (Brazil) and ICBC (Peru), with assets up to USD 5 billion, have granted total loans of USD 3.8 billion to support “Going Global” projects in Latin America and reserved 14 projects with a total investment of approximately USD 20 billion, covering fields in nuclear power, telecommunications, maritime works, energy resources, minerals, agriculture, among others.

According to an official with ICBC, the complementary economic advantages between China and Latin America have created a good opportunity for the mutually beneficial development of both sides, and the Chilean market and resources have offered enormous business opportunities for commercial banks. In the future, ICBC will leverage its business strengths in internationalization, integration, and information technology, global network and Group-wide resources, and focus on the long-term development of the Latin American countries. It will integrate the ICBC financial services with the local economic and social development, carry out benign interactions with the Latin American enterprises and local Chinese-invested enterprises, and build the financial bridge to promote the Sino-Chile bilateral economic and trade cooperation to a new stage.