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The national government announced the call for tenders to privatize the Hydroway and make it more competitive, which is key to Argentine foreign trade. With a private concession scheme at business risk, the project promises to modernize the infrastructure and improve logistical competitiveness.
The national government announced the call for tenders for the privatization of the Trunk Navigable Waterway, in a scheme that will once again be a private concession, at the risk of the company, and in which the State will no longer be linked to the management and maintenance of the waterway. This tender will be carried out by the Undersecretariat of Ports and Navigable Waterways, and offers will be received until January 29, 2025.
In an announcement made in the presence of the main representatives of the private and productive sector, the head of the Cabinet of Ministers, Guillermo Francos, announced that the specifications contemplate a major modernization of the management of the waterway, through which nearly 80% of Argentine foreign trade circulates.
Among other measures, radar bases and satellite systems for tracking vessels will be added. In addition, signage will be completely renewed - generating safer navigation - and control measures will be increased to combat drug trafficking and terrorism.
The Chief of Staff pointed out that during the meetings held with the President of the Nation and the governors of the coastal provinces, “everyone has raised the need to reach an understanding” on the Main Navigable Waterway and he celebrated “that we have been able to reconcile the different interests in this document.”
Finally, Francos stressed that this new tender is “more complete, more modern because there are many issues that were not in the previous concession and that have been included in this one.” He also explained that “in this tender, all these modernization measures that occur during the execution period of the contracts can be incorporated in order to make them increasingly useful for international trade.”
For his part, the president of the Chamber of Private Commercial Ports, Luis Zubizarreta, stressed that “if we want to develop our Argentina, it is critical to make it competitive,” since “we are a country that is far from the world and, therefore, we have a natural disadvantage. In order to get closer, we need efficient logistics.”
He added that “this milestone will allow 80 percent of our foreign trade to have more efficient and lower logistics rates,” which will have “a direct impact on what the producer receives and what the consumer pays.”
“Another very important point of this great step is that the tender is at the risk of the company, without State guarantees. That is to say, here it is the cargo itself that will pay for the work, and we do not need the State to put up a penny,” he stressed, and continued: “What we do need is a tender that is ambitious, and that aims at a very efficient navigation system that allows us to provide that competition.”
“With the achievement of this milestone, producers will have the incentive to produce even more, so we will be on the right path to making that leap in development and generating quality employment,” concluded Zubizarreta.
The specifications are the result of dialogue and joint work with users and provinces that use the route, in which a deepening to 39 feet will be carried out - with a first stage of unification of depths - in the Timbúes-Océano section. Dynamic methods are contemplated to establish new depths (more than 39), as well as new anchoring and overtaking areas, at any time during the contract, granting dynamism to a reality in constant development and modernization.
The future concessionaire, which will put an end to the provisional nationalisation of the Main Navigable Waterway, must comply with the works plan established in the tender documents and the new contract, which determines the priority stages of works to be carried out in the first five years of the concession.
According to the contract model, this is a 30-year tender that will allow for broad participation by the worlds leading companies in river-maritime projects. There will also be strict requirements to ensure the track record and technical capacity of the companies that submit bids, as well as their financial solvency.
The Undersecretary of Ports and Waterways, Iñaki Arreseygor; the Executive Director of the Rosario Stock Exchange, Javier Cervio; the Vice President of the Transport Commission of the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA), Juan Iocco; and the President of the Chamber of the Oil Industry of the Argentine Republic (CIARA) and the Center of Cereal Exporters (CEC), Gustavo Idígoras, participated in the activity. |
