News of sector

Anti-Milei strike leads to mass flight cancellations

24-01-2024 09:45 State airline Aerolíneas Argentinas forced to cancel more than 260 flights due to CGT’s anti-Milei walkout; Low-cost carriers JetSmart cancels all business for the day, while FlyBondi moves operations to Ezeiza; More than 20,000 travellers affected.

Bloomberg

Billionaire Paolo Rocca has a Plan B for lithium if alpha bid fails

11-10-2023 08:10 Billionaire Paolo Rocca’s oil drilling unit will enter the lithium business one way or another.

BUSINESS & REAL ESTATE

Ex-Soros partner surfs Argentine crisis with real-estate empire

03-10-2023 12:43 Eduardo Elsztain avoided speculative investments in stocks, bonds and derivatives as he built up his empire over the last 30 years. Now his real-estate company IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones is booming, even as Argentina enters recession.

Bloomberg

Argentina seeks to tax lithium boom to avoid region’s resource curse

02-10-2023 11:57 Provincial and federal officials want to tap the profits of lithium companies with an annual tax that would be put toward building infrastructure.

Lithium in Argentina

Lithium boom in Argentina hinges on politics, Zijin unit says

27-09-2023 19:05 Hurdles to lithium development in neighbouring Chile and Bolivia have opened the door for Argentina, says top industry official

'Plan platita'

Government boosts election spending, risking even more inflation

26-09-2023 23:51 Informal jobs make up nearly half of Argentina’s labour market, depending on the degree of formality that’s considered.

'plan platita' reloaded

Massa targets three million voters with informal worker bonus

26-09-2023 23:44 Hours before electoral ban comes into effect, ruling coalition presidential candidate Sergio Massa makes one last ‘plan platita’ play; Economy minister targets between two and three million voters in informal sector with post-devaluation payments.

Bloomberg

China’s Zijin is in talks with Argentina to turn lithium into battery cathode

11-07-2023 17:46 China’s Zijin Mining Group is in advanced talks to build a plant in Catamarca that will turn some of the nation’s huge lithium reserves into cathodes used to make electric-vehicle batteries.

NEW REPORT

Report: Public employment up 34% in Argentina since 2011, private only 3%

05-07-2023 12:32 New report by IERAL, business school of the Fundación Mediterránea think tank, shows a massive imbalance between the growth of public and private sector jobs in Argentina. Only province in which private-sector jobs grew faster was Neuquén, thanks to Vaca Muerta. Córdoba recruited the fewest state employees.

Lithium sector

Argentina’s growing lithium industry hits export records

17-06-2023 13:50 Argentina's lithium industry hit a record high with exports rising to US$60 million in May, up 17% from the same month a year ago.

ELECTIONS 2023

PASO primaries: Alberto's favoured candidates, who’s in the race

25-04-2023 17:47 Alberto Fernández will not seek re-election, but he still wants a presence and influence over the Frente de Todos line-up for the primaries. Who are the candidates the president is promoting for the nation, provincial and city races? And who from the ruling coalition has publicly declared their intentions in the race for the Casa Rosada?

MINING & INDUSTRY

Lithium boom delivers job growth to Argentina’s mining industry

28-03-2023 15:09 National industry industry has now recorded 28 consecutive months of job creation growth, with more than 37,000 workers now employed in the sector.

LOCAL DEBT PILE

Argentina sells US$2 billion in peso debt after ordering bond swap

22-03-2023 21:56 Argentina sells close to 417 billion pesos (US$2 billion) in peso-denominated notes and bonds via auction, latest step in managing a massive local debt pile as the government seeks to extend maturities until after October elections.

Central Bank reserves

Government obliges state bodies to convert dollar bonds into pesos

22-03-2023 17:00 State entities are to sell their dollar bonds on the market in return for peso debt bonds issued by the Treasury with the aim of taming surges in the CCL and MEP parallel but legal exchange rates.

MARKETS

Bonds slide after government orders public sector sale

22-03-2023 12:17 Argentina’s sovereign-risk spread over US Treasuries widened as many as 126 basis points on Wednesday to almost 2,500, its widest in four months.

Lithium in Latin America

Argentina asserts lithium-industry ambitions with Chery EV plant

18-02-2023 10:17 Chinese automaker Chery Inc.'s plans to build a US$400-million electric vehicle and battery plant in Argentina underscore the country's intention to turn vast lithium deposits into an employment and investment bonanza.

Cryptocurrencies

Officials seeks solvency proof from crypto firms after FTX collapse

08-02-2023 09:11 Argentina’s government weighing creating new oversight requirements for crypto companies, three months after multi-billion-dollar collapse of FTX exchange.