Milei presses ahead with second bid to privatize key Mercosur export route

After a failed first attempt, Argentine President Javier Milei is moving ahead with a new tender to grant a private company the concession for the country’s main inland shipping corridor, a 3,400-kilometer river route critical for moving Argentine exports.

With the bid deadline passed, the government opened the envelopes and will now assess three contenders to operate the corridor: Belgium’s Dredging, Environmental & Marine Engineering (DEME), Belgium’s Jan De Nul, and Brazil’s DTA Engenharia.

Milei’s plan is to privatize, for 25 years with an option to extend for another five, the maintenance and operation of the Argentine stretch of the main navigation channel, known locally as the Vía Navegable Troncal (VNT) and more widely as the Paraná-Paraguay waterway. The route links river ports in Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay to the Atlantic Ocean along a continuous 3,400-kilometer navigation system.

About 4,500 ocean-going vessels transit the corridor each year, and more than 80% of Argentina’s export volume moves through it, including agro-industrial products and automotive output, according to the government.

The tender, launched in December, covers operations, toll collection, maintenance, marking and dredging works along the waterway, from kilometer 1238 of the Paraná River at its confluence with the Paraguay River to the deep-water area of the Río de la Plata. It also includes technology investments aimed at improving navigation speed.

Argentina’s 1,400-kilometer section was run for 25 years by a private consortium formed by Belgium’s Jan De Nul and Argentina’s Emepa. When that contract expired in 2021, the Peronist government of Alberto Fernández (2019-2023) returned control to the state, though Jan De Nul continued operating the corridor as a state subcontractor. Emepa, meanwhile, was linked to the so-called “Notebooks” corruption case, in which prosecutors said the company’s owner, Gabriel Romero, allegedly paid bribes to secure a 2010 extension of the concession.

After Milei took office, his administration sought to return the corridor to private hands and launched a tender in November 2024 that drew accusations of a lack of transparency. Eleven firms expressed interest, but when bids were opened only one formal offer had been submitted, from DEME, which had been among the strongest critics of the process and said the terms were skewed. The government then voided the tender and opened an investigation to determine whether DEME pressured competitors or whether an illicit pact harmed the state and Argentine producers.

Tender under U.N. oversight

The government said the terms for the new tender were drafted with support and auditing from the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which it said ensured transparency. In an official statement, the administration said the cooperation with the U.N. body would ensure the award process follows competitiveness criteria that directly benefit the national economy, and highlighted the role of business chambers and provincial governments along the corridor.

Among the main changes from the previous tender, the concession period was reduced from 30 years, with a possible 30-year extension, to 25 years with an option for five more. Reference prices were also cut to $3.8 from $4.5 per net registered ton (TRN).

“This tender guarantees at least a 10% reduction in dollar terms in logistics costs from day one,” said Iñaki Arreseygor, executive director of Argentina’s National Ports and Navigation Agency. He said the scope of works also includes greater depth targets and adds the province of Entre Ríos to the route.

The government estimates the evaluation of bids will take about three months, and that the winning bidder will take control within 60 to 90 days after the award. “We should reach the second half of the year with a new operation,” Arreseygor said.

Even so, questions remain over the process. One criticism is that awarding more than 1,400 kilometers to a single operator would create an “inefficient monopoly” given the scale of the task, an argument Milei’s team rejects as driven by parties seeking a share of the business. Another concern is the absence of explicit “depth targets” that would allow modern bulk carriers to sail fully loaded and avoid costly calls at other ports.

Government officials say the tender contemplates the maximum depth that existing studies allow bidders to price, while leaving open the possibility of renegotiation to reach greater depth, based on new analyses that would determine conditions on the riverbed below the levels already surveyed.

Source: El País

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