In July an increase of 24.1% had been decided, however, the company decided to apply a downward adjustment to the new prices.
After several meetings with the government for the announcement of an increase, the company Cuenca del Plata Terminal (TCP) decided to define a rise of 17% in the port fees as of this Wednesday, 7 points less than what had been defined in the month of July.
From tomorrow, tcp will increase its port fees by 17%, after having several meetings with the government based on complaints from businessmen because it will harm, even more, the competitiveness of the Port of Montevideo. The company, in which the Belgian company has a majority stake Katoen Natiehad defined an increase of 24.1% in July.
“It is important to highlight that this decision is marked in a plan for the gradual correction of the necessary balances for the company. The decision seeks to minimize the impact of the measure, with special attention to the export sector”, expressed the manager of Institutional Relations of TCP, Fernando Correait’s a statement.
On the other hand, they announced an upward correction of 13% in the export fees and Temporary Admission that benefited from the reduction that was included in the agreement between the Uruguayan state and the Belgian company.
The statement also explained the reason for the rate increase due to a drop in the exchange rate. At the beginning of the agreement with the Uruguayan government, in which he was given Katoen Natie an extension of the TCP concession until the year 2081, the dollar was around 43 Uruguayan pesos, while currently it reached 37 pesos. “That is why it is necessary to correct the economic mismatch that we have between our income, pay operating costs that our terminal has and comply with the cash flow commitments that the project needs,” the statement stated.
The fight for competitiveness
The issue of competitiveness Port of Montevideo It has been around for a long time, characterized by an export sector that constantly complains about the port’s inability to compete with other ports in the region. At the end of May, the president of the Union of Exporters of Uruguay (UEU), Facundo Márquez, criticized that prices in Uruguayan port terminals “are three and a half or four times more expensive than competitive ports such as those of Chili or Rio Grande in Brazil”.
On the other hand, he assured that, in the last seven years, prices increased 350%, although he admitted that, since the concession to the Belgian company, Katoen Natie – which owns 80% of the Cuenca del Plata Terminal where the other 20% belongs to the ANP – prices managed to drop by 26%.
Source: Ambito
