Posted on August 21, 2023
ARGENTINA
A 40.4bn-peso (US$115mn) tender to build a navigation channel at the mouth of the River Plate to link it with Argentina’s territorial sea was declared void after no offers were presented for the contract, according to procurement website Contrat.ar
The project entails dredging 54km between the Punta Indio canal and the 11m isobath of the river.
Without the channel, dubbed the Magdalena Canal, ships using the river going from ports such as Buenos Aires or Rosario will have to keep passing through Uruguayan waters before accessing the ocean.
BOLIVIA
Blockades of the main roads linking Bolivia’s Santa Cruz and Cochabamba departments, which have lasted for five days, have caused US$47mn in losses for exporters, local news outlets reported, quoting the head of national exporters’ association CANEB, Marcelo Olguín.
Protesters are demanding the construction of the over US$200mn Las Cruces-Buena Vista highway, which is opposed by the Santa Cruz government due to its potential effects on local water sources, while others have questioned its feasibility.
The head of Bolivia’s engineers’ society, Jorge Franco, told Red Uno that the project’s price tag should be at least US$60mn lower, and that highway authority ABC has ignored the warnings.
PARAGUAY
Argentina rejected a request from Paraguay to suspend a tariff imposed on vessels using a stretch of the Paraguay-Paraná waterway (in photo) within Argentina, and the new Paraguayan government vowed to exhaust all legal options to reverse the measure.
Since the US$1.47/t tariff went into effect on January 1, Paraguayan vessels have paid around US$11mn, and the amount could reach US$50mn by the end of the year, the head of the country’s shipowners’ association CAFyM, Raúl Valdez, was quoted as saying in a press release from the public works ministry (MOPC).
He also said Paraguay will seek the return of the tariffs paid by shipowners.
