The Paraguay and Parana Rivers jointly form a 3,302-kilometer waterway system connecting Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay. It is a major transportation route between the continent’s interior and the Atlantic Ocean through the Rio de la Plata, and carries nearly 80 per cent of Paraguay’s trade. The waterway encompasses 86 ports and conveys nearly 80% of all of Argentina’s agricultural exports, connecting ports in the Parana River with the Rio de la Plata River and onto the Atlantic Ocean. It is a key route to export agricultural commodities such as soyabeans from Argentina and nearby Paraguay.
Owing to relentless call by the trade lobbies and industry bodies for an international agency to operate the waterway as the historic low water levels in the Parana River was impeding the traffic, disrupting the transit through the river causing great difficulties to the traders in the region. The Argentinian government has through a presidential decree mid-2021, has handed over the responsibility for the control and maintenance of the key Parana – Paraguay River network to the Argentina’s general port administration agency (AGP).
AGP will have the capacity to call for a specific tender to select a foreign firm to take charge of dredging and signalling along the key waterways. The AGP will be in charge of collecting the toll paid by bulk carriers using the waterway and these resources will be used to pay for dredging and waterway maintenance. Three local universities have been roped in and they are working to define the financial, technical and legal aspects of the future tender documents.
Four major companies and their consortiums are in the run to bid for the new concession long term dredging contract to be awarded in 2022. Jan de Nul along with Compañía Sudamericana de Dragado; the Belgian International Dredging Company, the Chinese company CCCC Shanghai Dredging CO and the Argentine company Servimagnus SA as the second consortium; The Dutch Boskalis and finally, the union between Danish Rhode Nielsen and Emepa SA.
