In Port News 26/09/2016
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay should discuss the building of a deep-water port in Uruguay to serve the River Plate basin they all share, an expert who researched and designed the proposal believes.
In an interview with the Herald Walter Sánchez, the director of Ports and Waterways of CSI Ingenieros, said such a plan would “beneift all the River Plate basin nations” but warned investment would be needed.
For Uruguay, it would not be profitable to build the likely US$1.5-billion project on its own to export just 500,000 containers a year and 10 million tons of bulk cargo, said Sánchez, who worked with an Argentine consultancy firm on a basic design of the project, on commission from the Uruguayan administration.
“Furthermore, although the chosen location has a good natural draft, shelter conditions are non-existent and there are no roads or railways. To solve all this would require enormous investments,” he added.
“A deep-water port would benefit all the River Plate basin nations. But it would only be profitable if all of them participate,” Sánchez said. “However, currently there are no talks on the project.”
In 2014 CSI and the Serman & Asociados Argentine consultancy firm won a tender put out by the Uruguayan administration of then President José Mujica, to draw up the basic design of such a project. It was finally presented at the IX Port Engineering Congress, organized by the Argentine Association of Port Engineers (AADIP) earlier this month in Buenos Aires.
Rocha
The proposed location for the port would be Rocha, on the Atlantic coast, about 250 kilometres to the east of Montevideo, near from the Brazilian border. It’s an area with a depth of 20 metres at a distance of 1.5 kilometres from the coastline, Sánchez said. Already a 15-metre depth would allow the berthing of 90 percent of the vessels, as large porta-container ships don’t arrive fully loaded. The only ones requiring 20 metres would be ore and oil carriers.
Uruguay had been considering the Aratirí mining project which ultimately failed. Hence, a company with a strong interest in a 20-metre depth could be its state-run oil concern Ancap.
Three years ago, Brazil said it would contribute between US$500-600 million to the project, saying that it saw it as a complement to its Río Grande do Sul port, not as a competitor.
But since Brazil has been plunged in a deep political and economic crisis, its contribution has failed to materialize. There have also been some talks with Paraguay but political complications have once again thwarted them.
Argentine project
Under the former administration of president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentina concluded that it had a good possibility and the ideal conditions for building to build its own deeper-than-50-feet port in Punta Indio, on the Atlantic coast. The government eyed premises of 750 hectares with a 4,000-metre long sea-front, with connections to national and provincial roads, and also near railway stations.
That port would be used to handle hydrocarbons and complete cargo for vessels coming down the Paraná-Paraguay waterway, which would never come with cargo beyond 36 feet due to the Hidrovía draft limitations. It would also handle an overspill of general cargo containers and would be used for trans-shipping iron ore coming from Corumbá, in Brazil, and eventually from Bolivia, in very long ships. They would complete cargo in Punta Indio to 50 feet and go out through the existing Magdalena Channel in the River Plate. There were plans to connect the Magdalena to a projected 50-kilometre long, 50-feet-plus-deep channel.
The government of President Mauricio Macri, who took office last December, reportedly backs the Punta Indio Project.
One Argentine expert, speaking anonymously, told the Herald: “Either we build the deep-water port at Punta Indio, or the Uruguayans will build it in their territory.”
Sánchez said that the maritime conditions to build the port in Punta Indio weren’t favourable.
Mending fences
Traditionally fraternal relations between Argentina and Uruguay were strained during several years under the administrations of Fernández de Kirchner and her late husband and predecessor Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007). The two nations went to the The Hague-based World Court over a dispute about two Finnish pulp mills which Uruguay had built on its soil and which Argentina alleges had polluted its local environment. During the dispute Kirchner went as far as accusing President Tabaré Vázquez of stabbing Argentina in the back. Vázquez, for his part, said that he even considered requesting US help, fearing an Argentine invasion. Vázquez was Uruguayan President between 2005 and 2010 and was re-elected last year to succeed Mujica.
Soon after taking office, Macri buried the hatchet with Uruguay by scrapping Resolution 1108 issued by Fernández de Kirchner in 2013 banning trans-shipment of Argentine cargo at Uruguayan ports. Resolution 1108 again had prompted Uruguayan officials to accuse Argentina of treason. Shipping sources say the measure failed to lure more cargo to Argentina.
Sánchez said that is all reasonable that Argentina plan its own deep-water port but that it should not be an obstacle to considering the Uruguayan proposal to the benefit of all sides.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald
