Rare earths, engineering, infrastructure. Chile: a hub for SMEs in Latin America

A hub for Latin America that is still largely overlooked by Italian businesses, which might, however, find in Chile one of the continent’s most politically and economically stable countries, ‘well-organised and structured from an industrial perspective, with a well-established culture of free markets and economic competition, and a high degree of transparency in economic activities’.

According to Luciano Marocchino, a fashion entrepreneur and president of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Chile (which forms part of the network of 86 Italian Chambers of Commerce Abroad, members of Assocamerestero), now is the right time to invest in Chile: the new government led by José Antonio Kast Rist, which took office last March, has launched an economic and fiscal plan aimed at revitalising industrial investment – including foreign investment – by reducing corporate taxation, encouraging employment and streamlining regulatory and bureaucratic procedures.

Furthermore, Marocchino explains, a trade agreement between the EU and Chile has been in force since February 2025, which has removed tariffs on almost all European exports and simplified trade rules. Already today, Italia – Chile’s ninth-largest supplier, with nearly 1.3 billion euros’ worth of goods sold in 2025 according to Maeci data – is regarded as a reliable and high-quality partner, particularly in industrial technology goods such as mechanical engineering (the leading export category), chemicals, construction and transport. However, sectors such as agri-food and services are also rapidly gaining ground. Competition is more challenging, at least in the mid-market segment, in the consumer goods sectors, where price remains the dominant factor, although, as President Marocchino assures us, attitudes are changing, particularly amongst the younger generations.

The potential for growth is enormous: Italia (Europe’s fifth-largest supplier) currently accounts for just 2 per cent of the total market, whilst China and the United States are by far Chile’s main trading partners, accounting for 32.7 per cent and 17 per cent respectively of Chilean trade. However, as Marocchino explains, ‘significant opportunities may open up for Italy and the European Union in strategic sectors such as energy, infrastructure, industry, green technologies, agribusiness, digitalisation and the processing of raw materials, where the country has every interest in diversifying its suppliers to reduce its dependence on a single partner’.

Particularly with regard to rare or critical minerals and renewable energy, Chile represents a major opportunity not only for our country’s exports, but also for the supply of our industry. The race is on, and major names in Italian industry have already secured a decisive role, such as Eni, which recently acquired a 25 per cent stake in Black Giant SpA, a Chilean subsidiary of EnergyX, which holds a lithium development project in the north of the country, with a total investment of around 225 million dollars. Then there is Enel, which operates in the country through Enel Chile, one of the leading local players in energy generation, distribution and supply. And then there are Ferrero (through its subsidiary Agrichile), Epta, Reale Seguros, Mapei and Savino Del Bene, to name but a few of the 274 Italian companies present in Chile through their own manufacturing or commercial subsidiaries (of which 180 are members of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Chile), which together generate an aggregate turnover of around 6.6 billion euros and employ 15,900 people.