President Javier Milei’s government on Thursday pre-awarded the concession for dredging and buoy maintenance on the Hidrovía Paraná-Paraguay waterway to a consortium comprising Belgian company Jan De Nul and local firm Servimagnus, the Economy Ministry announced in a statement.
The waterway handles around 80 percent of Argentina's exports and is considered one of the country's most strategic trade routes.
The preliminary award decision opens a seven-day period during which interested parties may submit formal objections before the contract is formally awarded.
Argentina’s Economy Ministry said the tender was evaluated under a scoring system developed with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), following a review of compliance with bidding documents, domestic regulations and international best-practice recommendations.
"As a result of the final evaluation, the contract was recommended for award to the Jan De Nul–Servimagnus bid, while the proposal submitted by DEME NV was rejected," the Economy Ministry said.
Although Jan De Nul and DEME submitted identical financial offers, the winning consortium scored significantly higher in the technical evaluation, receiving 66.20 points compared with 42.14 for DEME. A third bidder, DTA Engenharia, was ruled inadmissible for failing to provide a bid guarantee.
The government said the concession would reduce logistics costs by almost 15 percent while modernising navigation technology along the waterway.
Officials also said no participating company challenged the bidding process and that courts had rejected complaints seeking to halt the tender.
Jan De Nul previously operated the waterway between 1995 and 2021 through a consortium with Argentine company Emepa under the corporate name Hidrovía SA.
Since 2021, dredging, buoy maintenance, navigation signalling and toll collection on the waterway have been managed by the state through the General Ports Administration, after the government of then-president Alberto Fernández decided not to renew the concession.
The Vía Navegable Troncal (VNT), known as the Paraná-Paraguay waterway, is a river transport corridor stretching more than 1,500 kilometres and flowing into the Atlantic Ocean. It is used to ship nearly 80 percent of Argentina's exports, primarily agricultural products.
The route also serves as an export channel for goods from Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia and Uruguay, making it a strategic artery for regional foreign trade.
– TIMES/AFP/NA
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