April 24th – Upriver Draft

April 24th 2020

Upriver Draft

In view of the ongoing developing situation and different communications and instructions being issued by Sanitary Authorities of the Argentine Government we have chosen to send a consolidated daily report at the closing of working hours with an update of the day’s news.

-National Holidays: Friday, May 01st 2020, Labor day. Next Monday, May 25th, May Revolution.


-Covid-19 National Quarantine:
The National Quarantine, with severe restrictions on people’s movements is to remain in force until April 26th. It is taken for granted that it will be extended. Certain additional occupations will be exempted from the restrictions.

-River Parana draft: A study commissioned by the Rosario Board of Trade estimates that the loss to the local economy brought on by the limited draft available on the River Paraná will be of about USD 224 million. The study points out that the level of the River Parana at Rosario is today at 0.55 meters, but that within a month it will be 0.40 meters. (This does not necessarily mean that vessels navigating will lose one meter draft!). The forecast also says that the river will not recover until the middle/end of June 2020 given the lack of rain in the basin (South-East Brazil, Paraguay, eastern Bolivia and North-East Argentina.

-River Parana dredging: Still active with four/five dredgers working on shallow passes. The dredger DASA I has arrived at San Nicolas today. She will commence work tomorrow April 25th. It is not yet known how long she will be operating, but the objective is to bring the draft of the whole port to 10.0 meters at datum. She has a lot of work ahead of her since the berths are banked up and the access canal too. As work progresses we will keep you posted.

-River Parana draft limitation: As reported before, the mv AG VALOR and the mv ROYAL HOPE are still anchored at Rosario Roads, both on more that 10.00 meters draft. Both vessel’s suffered mishaps and when they were free to continue the River draft had dropped so significantly that they cannot sail. From local reports picked up it seems that both vessels have opted for waiting until the River draft recovers usual levels.

mv AG VALOR

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mv ROYAL HOPE

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-Buenos Aires Grain Exchange: The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange reports that 56 per cent of the soya bean harvest is completed. The expected overall amount is still maintained at 49.5 million tons.

The maize harvest is also underway and there 34.5 per cent has been harvested. The total overall is maintained at 50 million tons.

The wheat harvest (2019/2020) has been declared completed with a total of 18.8 million tons. Slightly down on last year and specially considering that the sown area was 6 per cent larger. The weather affected yields significantly. The 2020/2021 wheat is getting going with optimistic looks, a greater area being sown and rain showers making the ground better for sowing.

-Bahia Blanca: The mv TRITON HAWK completing cargo at Bahia Blanca, coming from Nueva Palmira, was exempted from the 14 day quarantine requirement after intense negotiations with port unions (Stevedores, grain surveyors, amongst others). The vessel had arrived at Bahia Blanca Roads, Buoy 11 on April 19th but was denied entry, considered coming from abroad. After the afore mentioned negotiations she berthed yesterday evening. This is a good precedent, since today afternoon, the mt BOW NEON was also allowed to waive the quarantine and will berth on arrival.

-Necochea: The port remains open since April 09th at 1615 hrs.

-Necochea and Bahia Blanca: The grain surveyors’ union are still keeping a “work to rule” and will only attend vessels in normal working hours. Monday to Friday 0700/1900 hrs. Saturday 0700/1300 hrs.

Will keep you posted.

Best regards,
Antares Servicios Maritimos S.A.

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