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Through the Spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, the Government announced this Wednesday the privatization, separately, of the different lines operated by the railway company Belgrano Cargas, one of the six companies that were mentioned in the privatization annex of the Ley Bases. And it is added to the closure of a company linked to the FFCC.
Belgrano Cargas y Logística SA is the company that operates the Belgrano, San Martín and Urquiza lines, which total a railway route of 7,600 km in 16 provinces. According to the statement from the Presidents Office, "they will be granted to private companies, keeping the tracks and land as property of the National State."
"In state hands, Belgrano Cargas is obscenely in deficit and has an oversized plant with 4,429 people, in addition to a high hierarchical structure not in accordance with its functions," they added. Adorni, meanwhile, justified that the privatization is also based on the fact that "the State invested 112 million dollars in this company last year. Money that came from each and every Argentine."
The measure was announced at Casa Rosada on Wednesday afternoon in a conference held with the head of the Agency for the Transformation of Public Companies, Diego Chaher; who detailed the scope of the concession process to the private sector.
«For each of the three lines we will implement seven different concessions. One concession for the track, with the right to collect tolls and which will include the transfer of employees affected by it. Two concessions for locomotives that will allow for competition that includes their respective drivers. Two concessions for wagons and two concessions for wagons that include associated businessmen,» explained Chaher.
"With this model we will triple the volume of cargo transported as the number of trains and their frequency will increase," he said.
The proposed scheme is for open access infrastructure concessions. He explained that this obliges the concessionaire to "allow passage to all operators who want to transport cargo on that route." "The Belgrano Cargas company, as it has operated until now, will cease to exist," the announcement concluded.
According to high-ranking sources in the Casa Rosada, the government is analyzing offers that were presented for that company. In addition, they said that "more railway privatizations are coming in the coming months."
Belgrano Cargas is one of the five railway companies currently owned by the National State. The others are the Railway Infrastructure Administration (ADIFSE), Argentine Railways (FASE), Railway Operator (SOFSE) and Railway Human Capital Development (DECAHF). The Government announced weeks ago the closure of the latter and the relocation of its structure and functions to the different public companies.
The privatization of Belgrano Cargas was the first of the companies in the Bases Law on which action could be taken because it is a Public Limited Company, which facilitates any type of administrative procedure.
This is not the case with State Companies such as SOFSE, which is included in the privatization annex of the mega-law, but which must first resolve a number of bureaucratic issues to convert it into a SA.
The privatization of the company has a history of twists and turns. In 1999, then-president Carlos Menem handed over 99% of the concession to Unión Ferroviaria. At that time, according to official figures, Belgrano Cargas transported 1.74 million tons.
This was until 2006, during the presidency of Néstor Kirchner, when the Secretary of Transport, Ricardo Jaime, was entrusted with the reactivation of this cargo line, given that the loads transported did not exceed 600,000 tons, a 65% decrease in seven years. In the middle of that year, the line was operated by a Chinese-Argentine consortium headed by Franco Macri. They owned 51% of the line, while other private partners such as Benito Roggio and EMEPA, of the businessman Gabriel Romero, were incorporated.
In June 2013, through Resolution 471/2013, the government of Cristina Kirchner created Belgrano Cargas y Logística SA (BCYL SA) with the aim of "bringing together in a single company the three most important freight transport lines in the country": the Belgrano Line, the San Martín Line and the Urquiza Line.
In 2016, and with the aim of giving it a federal imprint, the company began to be called Trenes Argentinos Cargas.
The railway line has a direct impact on 16 provinces: CABA, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Entre Ríos, Corrientes, Misiones, Chaco, Santa Fe, Santiago del Estero, Tucumán, Salta, Jujuy, Mendoza, San Juan, San Luis and Catamarca.
It is managed through 11 production units and eight workshops where rolling stock repairs are carried out.
The main cargoes, according to the governments website, include agricultural products, stone, coking coal, wood, minerals, metals, consumer products and other eventualities. |
