Uruguay eyes 14-meter depth for Port of Montevideo

Dredging the access channel to the port of Montevideo to a depth of 14 meters has been a long-standing Uruguayan aspiration and an explicit commitment to companies such as Terminal de Graneles Montevideo, UPM 2 (Paso de los Toros) and Terminal Cuenca del Plata/Katoen Natie. These groups invested millions of dollars to operate and ship goods from the country’s main port.

During the administration of Tabaré Vázquez, Uruguay negotiated with Argentina the deepening of the channel to 14 meters. The former Minister of Transport, Víctor Rossi, announced that the neighboring country had authorized such a depth, but the former president of the National Ports Administration (ANP), Alberto Díaz, led a project with a depth of only 13 meters.

On Tuesday, the 3rd, Alem García, the president of the Uruguayan delegation in the Administrative Commission of the River Plate (CARP), sent the digitized documentation requested by Argentina on the deepening of the access channel to the port of Montevideo to 14 meters.

According to El País, the information provided to Argentina was prepared by an inter-ministerial working group formed at the request of the Uruguayan delegation to CARP, consisting of officials from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Transport and Public Works, the National Administration of Ports (ANP) and three units of the National Navy (Service of Oceanography, Hydrography and Meteorology-SOHMA, National Naval Prefecture and Naval School).

The Argentine delegation already acknowledged receiving the material. However, Argentina indicated that it has a period of 30 days to verify that the “information provided is complete” and, if not, it will request additional information from the Uruguayan delegation through the CARP.

Asked by El País, Alem García declined to comment, saying only that he expects a positive response from Argentina since Uruguay has provided all the information regarding the project to deepen the access channel to the port of Montevideo.

The material delivered to Argentina contains the plans of the area to be dredged, the volumes of material to be removed, the deposit areas, the results of the bathymetry carried out by SOHMA in record time, and simulation studies by the Naval Academy, among other technical information.

In a report entitled “Maritime Interests,” Silvia Etchebarne, the president of the Uruguayan Maritime League, warned that the dispute with Argentina over the dredging of the access channel to the port of Montevideo requires political mediation.

This mediation, she said, would resolve the situation between the two countries and reduce Argentina’s approval time to start with the dredging works. “Everything seems to indicate, in the best case scenario, as seen in the recent history of channel dredging, that by 2025 Montevideo’s port will not reach 14 meters as announced at the beginning of this administration in March 2020,” said the lawyer specialized in logistics issues.

Etchebarne stated that if ANP opts for an international tender, the timetable suggested in the public notice can be very significant, as well as its costs. ANP has estimated the cost of dredging the channel will be US$200 million.

Source: El País

Sharing is caring!