Political party uses maneuver to transfer the Port of Buenos Aires

A few months after its term ended, the Argentine government would try to transfer the Port of Buenos Aires to the orbit of the city of Buenos Aires, managed by its political partner Horacio Rodríguez Larreta. This was the complaint made by the Justicialista Party (PJ), in a note signed by President José Luis Gioja.

The Port of Buenos Aires, which depends on the General Administration of Ports of the State Company, of the Undersecretariat of Ports and Waterways, within the orbit of the Argentine Ministry of Transport, is the main outlet for exports to the world.

The Government, through the Ministry of Transport, approved in May the content of national and international public notices for the operation of the Port as part of a process initiated in December. The project was presented as a plan for the modernization of the Port of Buenos Aires, which contemplated the expansion of the terminal, doubling cargo capacity and increasing connectivity.

The Port has the peculiarity of having a single operator. In July, the Macri government reportedly made progress in modifying the tender document to hand over port management to the company PSA in Singapore for a period of fifty years.

“[The transfer] implies the sale for real estate of large lands of the National Public Domain without the proper intervention of the National Congress and the only possibility that they will have to continue the bidding project with a single port operator run by the partner and friend President Nicolás Caputo,” Gioja added in the statement.

The Port of Buenos Aires is currently undergoing controversy over a bid for its future concession, which is intended for a single operator for 50 years. Currently, the concession is divided by three companies.

The opening of the grant envelopes has been postponed and will be held eight days before the October 27 general election. They would present: TRP; APM terminals; Hutchinson Ports, and the Philippine investment group International Container Terminal Services (ICTSI).

The current operators said they would present consortia linked to the port of Singapore, linked to businessman Nicolás Caputo, friend of President Mauricio Macri. The companies reported that the tender was aimed at the construction of a type of Puerto Madero II in port lands.

In the specifications, it is explained that the Buenos Aires port area modernization project “aims to adapt its infrastructure to the growth of ship size and the characteristics of container traffic, modifying the centenary configuration of the docks and advancing with the construction of the running docks, understood as those capable of efficiently serving more than one simultaneous berth of New Panamax ships.”

It was also reported that the project “will consolidate a northward movement of port cargo activity, freeing up space for the exclusive attention of passengers and related activities in the south of the Port of Buenos Aires.”

Regarding the bidding process, the winning group must, among other conditions, continue the expansion work that is already being done and will require disbursements of US$760m in the first 10 years.

Source: Nuestro Mar

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