Port of Buenos Aires: Container Terminal Dealers Agree on Transition Period

The General Port Administration and the three current concessionaires of the container terminals in the Port of Buenos Aires agreed to set a period of one year to “transition” from three to one single operator, to be defined through bidding.

As a result, the envelopes with the proposals will be opened on December 2 – two months after the first deadline – and the transfer to the future winner will be on May 15, 2021.

Economic proposal

“Of the five operators interested in the current tender, three asked us for more time to prepare the economic proposal,” acknowledged Gonzalo Mórtola, president of the General Administration of Ports, without providing details about the actors involved.

“If our clients ask us two more months to make an economic offer in a 35-year concession, we can’t refuse,” he said, explaining the reasons for the extension.

On the other hand, it was agreed with the three current operators – Terminal Rio da Prata (DP World), Terminal 4 (Maersk Group), and Bactssa (Hutchison Ports) – to extend the transition period from the current context to the future scenario of a single operator.

Unanimity

“It was pointed out that the transition could not be resolved in a matter of months. The condition was that everyone agreed and was unanimous. If this helps predictability, we would not object to that,” added Mórtola.

The extension of the one-year contract for current operators will coincide with the expiration date of the other relevant national concession: the Paraná-Paraguay waterway maintenance and signaling contract, which also expires in May 2021.

Source: Trade News

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