Argentina's rising grains production strands vessels in river traffic

[Ghost Dog]

"... Increasing congestion on the Parana, which carries 80 percent of Argentina's grains exports, could hamper President Mauricio Macri's efforts to expand farm output and pull the country out of recession.

Macri wants Argentina to grow 25 percent more grains to boost rural income and has cut export taxes to attract more investment in the sector. But to haul all that grain to market, Macri needs the log jams on the river to end.

The government is studying how to accommodate the growing flotilla plying the waterway without driving up shipping costs - which could cancel out the benefits of the export tax cut to farmers and agricultural businesses.

"The entire river system is at its current limit," said Koen Robijns, Argentine operations manager for Jan De Nul, the privately-owned, Luxemburg-based company that operates the Parana and is responsible for dredging..."

http://reuters.com/article/idUSKBN15V0HM?il=0

[tenorly]

1. Good read -though it should mention that the boom in grain output was under the Kirchners, not Macri

Production of grain and oilseeds rose from 69 million tons in 2003, to 123 million in 2015. It may reach 130 million this year.

The article is also a testament to the mistake of having privatized the Paraná waterway operations back in 1995.

They, along with most of the nation's sizable merchant marine - some 500 ships with 3 million dwt between them - were sold off, mostly for worthless Brady bonds, on the condition that large investments be made in the shipping fleet and infrastructure.

Needless to say, nothing of the kind happened. Tens of millions were later invested in improving the waterway and in the Port of Rosario (the largest of the grain ports) but that was done by the federal government.

Meanwhile the private operators - led by a Dutch firm domiciled in Luxembourg in order to evade both Dutch and Argentine taxes - take in $3.5 billion in charges annually while investing next to nothing. Small wonder bottlenecks have emerged.

Whenever people wonder what Eddie Munster's privatized Medicare would look like, cases like this, despite obvious differences, might give them a good idea. The goal, as always, is to privatize the profits, but socialize the costs.

Thanks again for posting, Ghost Dog.

[Ghost Dog]

3. I thought it was good writing. Thanks for this further info, tenorly.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Good to see this story, and also the benefit of tenorly's background information.

It's a big step forward to get any actual information in the US about what the hey is happening outside the US in the Americas. This is an enormous area.

Thanks to Ghost Dog and to tenorly.

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More images from google, helpful in getting a first look at the scale of this area, for anyone else who's been unaware:

https://www.google.com/search?safe=active&hl=en&authuser=0&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1169&bih=562&q=Port+of+Rosario+parana+argentina&oq=Port+of+Rosario+parana+argentina&gs_l=img.3...748.9254.0.11385.19.2.0.17.17.0.139.139.0j1.1.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..1.2.140.0..0i30k1j0i24k1.mtaNzD2FMW4#imgrc=_

[tenorly]

4. Great finds, Judi. I wish DU gave out awards for research.

The Paraná has often been called the 'Mississippi of South America' thanks in part to its history as a commercial waterway.

Remember when Chris Cuomo called it the "Piranha River"?

Seriously though, besides its importance as a commercial grains hub, the Rosario Port Complex (actually three ports) also has a fair amount of architectural value.

One of its abandoned silos was repurposed in 2004 as the Museum of Contemporary Art. The former Rosario North terminal in turn, with its large, British-built brick warehouses from the 1880s, was saved from demolition and over the last four years converted into a real estate development. And voilà: