On Tuesday, Megal had been pre-awarded for 70% of the bottle packaging, and Ducsa confirmed the award of the five-year contracts for 45% of the service and three-year contracts for the other 25%. In this way, the gas company will operate for the first time with the Uruguayan distributor.
For its part, Acodike obtained the remaining 30% of the service for the packaging of Ducsa carafes, while Riogas did not appear at the auction due to a disagreement with the requirements.
The tender was carried out in the midst of the actions of the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining (MIEM) for establishing a supergas market more competitive and with greater participation of different actors.
What will happen to the Ducsa workers?
As for the 22 Ducsa workers, who operated at the truck loading fronts at the Acodike and Riogas plants and will be separated from the company at the end of the month —and their respective contracts—, Megal and Acodike will be hired in a proportion of 70% and 30%, respectively.
This is because one of the Conditions for submitting to the call for tenders was for the bidder to proportionally hire the employees.
The new scenario in the supergas market
The government’s objective is to create a supergas market with increased competition between players through new bidding contracts for the bottling plants that modify the association scheme.
To do this, it reduced and differentiated the extension of the contracts that were auctioned in mid-December for the bottling plants of the table —that, although they remained in the hands of Riogas and Acodike as it happened, it was possible to improve the competitiveness of the offers, as well as to differentiate the terms that the permits for the use of the facilities contemplated.
In this scenario, Megal, the only company in the Uruguayan market that has its own bottling plant, would be in charge of operating 70% of the supergas as of March 1, for five and three years.
Source: Ambito
