Overview
- Vía Navegable Argentina activated a contingency plan after rising Paraná river levels were recorded since mid-October and began a rapid international mobilization of dredging assets.
- Five dredgers are operating locally now — suction dredgers Pinta, Niña, Taccola and De Bougainville plus injection dredger Giovanni Venturi — to preserve channel depths.
- VNA has dispatched the suction dredger Francisco di Giorgio from Singapore with an expected late‑November arrival and is preparing the cutter dredger Ibn Battuta in Croatia to join by mid‑December.
- The company says the measures respond to two linked risks: stronger currents and vegetation drag that can damage buoys and beacons, and falling waters that concentrate sediment in choke points such as the Canal Emilio Mitre.
- VNA plans possible further reinforcement with the suction dredgers Alvar Núñez Cabeça de Vaca and/or Diogo Cão in early January 2027, a step meant to protect export flows and limit port delays and higher logistics costs if conditions worsen.