Posted on October 19, 2026
The governors of the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires and Entre Ríos focused on the necessary works that were left out of the contract for the Main Waterway (VNT), whose concession has already been awarded.
The national government awarded the concession for the Paraná-Paraguay Waterway for 25 years to a consortium made up of Belgium’s Jan de Nul and Argentina’s Servimagnus. The tender calls for investments of US$10 billion (bn) and includes dredging, re-dredging, maintenance and modernization of the signaling system of the country’s main grain transport route.
During the Federal Logistics Summit, the governor of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, called for the Canal Magdalena Dredging, which he described as a project that “will connect our river coastline with our maritime coastline.” He stressed that Argentina is “split” in terms of river and maritime logistics. According to the governor, to go from the country’s main rivers to the Argentine sea “it is necessary to pass through foreign jurisdiction”: traveling along the Punta Indio channel and crossing waters under Montevideo’s jurisdiction.
The project has accumulated several failed attempts. In August 2023, a tender for 40.400 million (mn) pesos (US$115mn) to dredge 54 km between the Punta Indio channel and the 11 m isobath of the Río de la Plata was declared void due to a lack of bids.
In 2026, a bill was introduced in the Chamber of Deputies to transfer execution of the project to the Province of Buenos Aires.
Kicillof also reviewed the provincial port plan. He mentioned US$75mn in port infrastructure for publicly managed consortia, US$236mn in dredging and around US$700mn in investment in private terminals over a five-year period. The province has 27 public and private ports, 30 shipyards and more than 100 naval workshops. The governor also cited the conversion of Route 11 (Atlantic Corridor) into a highway, with an investment of around US$180mn.
The governor of Entre Ríos, Rogelio Frigerio, praised the inclusion of the province in the Paraná-Paraguay Waterway in the latest tender and maintained that the next step is to extend the dredging up to the city of Concordia “to have the Uruguay River integrated as well”.
In the port sector, Frigerio highlighted Ibicuy as one of the deep-water ports with the greatest potential in the country. He explained that a pier extension project had been paralyzed for 29 years and that the same situation was repeated in the four provincial ports. This week, the governor granted the company PTP Argentina adherence to the Incentive Regime for New Investments (RINI) for a US$16mn project that will create 60 jobs. The works include upgrading the pier, specialized equipment and a multipurpose storage cell for bulk cargo, with a focus on silica sand for Vaca Muerta.
