Overview
- Under Resolution 61/2025, the ports agency ANPYN launched a non-binding Procedimiento de Observaciones Previas giving 10 days for written feedback on the near-final technical and legal pliegos.
- The draft sets a 25-year public works concession at the operator’s risk with no state guarantees, requires bids in U.S. dollars via a three-envelope system, and demands minimums of USD 300 million in net assets, USD 450 million in total turnover, and USD 300 million average dredging turnover.
- UNCTAD’s review says major dredgers Jan de Nul, DEME, Boskalis and Van Oord have sufficient fleet capacity, and notes other firms could compete through consortia, indicating a viable field of bidders.
- The official schedule targets bid opening in March 2026 and contract signing in May 2026, with ANPYN’s Iñaki Arreseygor also pointing to May, and the draft introduces price-band and scoring changes that give 60% weight to the economic offer to deter extreme bids.
- Industry groups including the UIA, Bolsa de Comercio de Rosario, CIARA–CEC and port chambers endorsed the process as crucial to cutting logistics costs on a corridor that handles about 80% of exports and links roughly 60 terminals.