News

As per last rumours and disclosed info, the Shanghai Dredging Company (SDC) is looking for winning the public tender for the Parana River dredging and marking, being its main offer "to charge less toll to the vessels" which tempts the agro-exporters and operators.
SDC is a big global weight holding which performs an active institutional and diplomatic lobby, and being another one interested party within a list that includes several European companies such as Jan De Nul, Dredging, Boskalis and Van Hool, among others of the worldwide finests.
SDC is a company focused in the construction and design of large transport and dredging infrastructures, based in Shanghai and operating as a subsidiary of the China Communications Construction Company Limited.
Within the Americas, it has offices in Brazil, Mexico, Panama, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Uruguay.
The interest is not ne w. 
In May 2016, as soon as the new government had taken office, China submitted an offer for the Parana river conditioning service to the National Ministry of Transport, ensuring that a toll rate of U$S 2,25 per Net Tonnage MT could be charged, against the U$S 3,06 charged by Hidrovía S.A. (Current concessioner).
Based on those numbers, the Undersecretary of Ports and Waterways at that moment, Jorge Metz, went against the toll charged by Hidrovía S.A., requesting a  30% reduction for greater competitiveness to the agroindustries logistics costs. 
This move didn't prosper as the tariffs were fixed by contract.
The strong SDC bet for a tolls dropping had success, catching on in some agro-export companies who saw the costs going down.
On the other hand, the raising of the Chinese compan y gathered the Europeans together (although they compete hard between them, they put themselves into a joint block for being defended from the Asian outpost) who maintain that entering a tariff battle will end up affecting the security level that can be granted by the dredging concessioner.
Shanghai Dredging Company does not come alone. 
It has Servimagnus as a local partner, which is a company of the Roman Organization (a holding through which the Román family operates. They own a diversified holding of logistics companies that until 2008 owned the Exolgan port terminal in Dock Sud).
With this partnership with the Chinese, they won in 2011 the public tender for the dredging and maintenance works of Buenos Aires port access channels.

We'll keep you posted and updated.