Chimbote, city in western Peru, on Chimbote (Ferrol) Bay (an arm of the Pacific Ocean), near Trujillo. Chimbote is on the Pan-American Highway and serves as a rail terminus for the coal and iron mines of the interior and for the rich Santa River valley, where rice, cotton, sugarcane, corn, and bananas are grown. A fishing port, developed as a part of the Santa River project, Chimbote exports canned fish and has been a center for the production of iron and steel since 1958. It was heavily damaged by an earthquake in 1970. Population (1991 estimate) 314,700.
