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Guillermo Wade News

20 Feb 2024

Parana River Reopens to Vessel Traffic with Draft Restrictions

© Alex Ruhl / Adobe Stock

Argentina's Parana River, a global grains thoroughfare, reopened to shipping traffic on Tuesday after a grounded ship was freed, though vessels were told to load less grain while the damage to the channel was assessed.Shipping traffic had been snarled after the ship Clara Insignia, loaded with wheat, ran aground near the waterway's main channel and was stuck for several days, blocking the channel down river from the Rosario grains port hub.The bulk carrier was freed late on Monday…

17 Apr 2023

Argentina Grains Inspectors Strike Halts Shipments at Rosario Ports

© Sebastian / Adobe Stock

Argentina grains inspectors have launched a 24-hour strike that is halting shipments at key river ports in farm transport hub Rosario, the ports chamber CAPyM said on Monday.The strike by the Urgara grains inspectors union is linked to conflicts over a port in the city of Buenos Aires and what it says are high taxes applied to workers' salaries.The strike "is affecting absolutely all the ports (in Rosario).

30 Mar 2023

Rosario Ports Operating Normally Despite Strike

© L Si Saber / Adobe Stock

Argentina's Rosario agro-port hub terminals were operating normally on Thursday in the midst of a strike by the Urgara grain receivers union aimed at storage centers, the country's Chamber of Port and Maritime Activities (CAPyM) said."The ports are not affected," Guillermo Wade, manager of CAPyM, told Reuters, adding that, at most, "those who have stocks will be receiving a little less merchandise or less than the estimated, but they are very specific cases."Grain receivers are technicians who analyze the merchandise stored in collection centers distributed throughout the country…

19 Apr 2022

Argentine Maritime Workers Plan 24-hour Strike

© claudio / Adobe Stock

Argentine ship workers will stage a 24-hour strike on Thursday to protest what they call delays by the government in awarding tenders to the sector, although the action is not expected to affect activity at key grains ports in and around Rosario.The Maritime, Port and Naval Industry Federation (Fempinra) announced the strike on Tuesday, less than a week after protests by grains truck drivers snarled up transportation of soy and corn right in the middle of the harvest season.Worker protests have grown more common in the South American country, the world's top exporter of processed soy and no.

21 Feb 2022

Argentina Grains Inspectors Start Strike; 'No Impact' at Ports

© Alex Ruhl / Adobe Stock

Argentina's grains inspectors began a 24-hour strike on Monday demanding bonus payments, but port activity and shipments of farm products were not affected in the South American country, the top global exporter of processed soybeans.Juan Carlos Peralta, press secretary of the URGARA union, said there was strong compliance with the strike action and that on Monday afternoon the union would hold another assembly to decide whether to extend the strike."We will continue with the measure if we do not have an answer…

27 Oct 2021

Mighty River to Muddy Trickle: South America's Parana Rings Climate Alarm

Illustration only - Aerial shot over Parana River in Front of Rosario City - Credit: Wirestock/AdobeStock

Gustavo Alcides Diaz, an Argentine fisherman and hunter from a river island community, is at home on the water. The Parana River once lapped the banks near his wooden stilt home that he could reach by boat. Fish gave him food and income. He purified river water to drink.Now the 40-year-old looks out on a trickle of muddy water.The Parana, South America's second-largest river behind only the Amazon, has retreated this year to its lowest level since its record low in 1944, hit by cyclical droughts and dwindling rainfall upriver in Brazil.

15 Jul 2021

Low River Water Levels Choke Argentine's Ag Exports

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Ships leaving the Argentine agricultural ports hub of Rosario on the Parana River are having to reduce cargos by thousands of tonnes due to low water levels, the local head of logistics said on Wednesday, amid growing environmental concerns.Dryness in Brazil, where the Parana originates, has diminished cargo traffic and sparked worries by environmentalists about dredging the river below certain depths. The dryness has reduced the amount of cargo that can be carried by ships at the height of the Argentine corn and soy export season."Handymax ships are leaving port with 9…

15 Jul 2021

Parched Argentine River Cuts Into Grains Exports

© aerrant / Adobe Stock

Ships leaving the Argentine agricultural ports hub of Rosario on the Parana River are having to reduce cargos by thousands of tonnes due to low water levels, the local head of logistics said on Wednesday, amid growing environmental concerns.Dryness in Brazil, where the Parana originates, has diminished cargo traffic and sparked worries by environmentalists about dredging the river below certain depths. The dryness has reduced the amount of cargo that can be carried by ships at the height of the Argentine corn and soy export season."Handymax ships are leaving port with 9…

08 Jul 2021

Argentine Province Orders Ports Strike to Be Lifted

© Ari / Adobe Stock

The government of Santa Fe province in Argentina late on Wednesday ordered port workers to suspend a day-old strike that had blocked grains shipments at the country's main agricultural export hub and mandated wage negotiations be resumed.Protests by port construction workers in Argentina's key grains hub Rosario had snarled exports, with roads blocked at some of the area's key export terminals, an industry official told Reuters earlier on Wednesday.The protest began late on Tuesday and on Wednesday spread to the districts of Puerto General San Martin and Timbues…

17 Jun 2021

Argentine Port Unions Plan Strike Over Vaccine Access

© Sebastian / Adobe Stock

A coalition of nine Argentine port worker unions will go on a nationwide 24-hour strike starting at midnight to press for vaccinations against the coronavirus, the labor groups said in a statement on Thursday.Workers including tugboat captains and customs officers have held similar work stoppages recently, as the South American grains powerhouse gets hit by a second wave of COVID-19 cases."We have raised the issue and held meetings with different authorities with the purpose to obtaining concrete answers regarding the application of vaccines against COVID-19 to our workers…

21 May 2021

Stranded Grains Ships to Be Towed Free from Rosario

(Photo: Claudio Elias)

Seven grains ships stranded at Argentina's export hub of Rosario will be towed free and sent out to sea after they were loaded with more produce than could be carried on the port's increasingly shallow waters, local authorities said on Friday.Rosario traffic has been snarled in the aftermath of a 48-hour strike by tugboat captains and other workers managing the flow of agricultural cargo ships.Seven ships, six of them large Panamax vessels, loaded with soymeal, corn and other farm products were moored at Rosario during the work stoppage.

21 May 2021

Argentina's Key Grains Port Snarled After Strike Over Vaccine Access

© pepe / Adobe Stock

Argentina's main grains port of Rosario was snarled on Friday in the aftermath of a 48-hour strike by tugboat captains and other workers managing the flow of agricultural cargo ships, who are demanding access to COVID-19 vaccines, port authorities said.Seven ships—six of them large Panamax vessels—that had been loaded with soy and other farm products were stranded at their docks, unable to embark due to the falling water level of the Parana River at Rosario, according to a letter…

05 May 2021

Low Water Levels Hamper Shipping on the Parana River

© Wirestock / Adobe Stock

Argentina's Parana River, the grains superhighway that takes soy and corn from the Pampas farm belt to the world, has gotten so shallow that it has started "trimming" international shipments just as the country's export season gets underway.The level of the Parana at the export hub of Rosario, home to some of the biggest soy crushing plants in the world, was a scant 0.90 meters on Wednesday, according to the Coast Guard.Between 1996 and 2020 the median depth of the river at Rosario in April was a much deeper 3.58 meters.

11 May 2020

Collapsed Riverbank Disrupts Argentina's Exports

© Alex Ruhl / Adobe Stock

Ships transporting cargo from Argentina's Rosario grain hub through the Parana River are having to reduce their cargoes after a bank collapse obstructed the navigation channel, exporters told Reuters.Dredgers are working in the Parana to the south of the Rosario complex to try to restore the necessary depth of water for export traffic, but at present have no estimate of when normal operations on the grains superhighway can resume."Ships cannot leave because they do not have the adequate safety margin…

25 Apr 2018

Cargo Ship Collides with Dock in Rosario

A cargo ship collided with a dock on the Parana River in Argentina's grains hub of Rosario on Wednesday, causing a slowdown of activity at terminal 6 in the port of General San Martín and raising soymeal prices."The southern pier of terminal 6 is operational, with difficulties on the barge docks due to the blockage caused by the ship that generated the accident," said Guillermo Wade, manager of Argentina's Chamber of Port and Maritime Activity."The north dock of terminal 6 suffered some serious damage. One operator working in the area suffered a minor blow, but nothing serious," Wade said.Argentina is the world's top exporter of soymeal livestock feed and the third biggest supplier of raw soybeans.The ship…

30 Apr 2015

Strike Paralyzes Argentine Grains Port for 2nd Day

Argentina's grains hub of Rosario was paralyzed on Thursday by the second day of pay strikes by unions representing stevedores and other workers needed to dock and load recently-harvested soy and corn, union and management spokesmen said. The work stoppages threaten to slow supply from grains powerhouse Argentina, putting upward pressure on world food prices. The country is the world's top exporter of soymeal livestock feed and its No. 3 supplier of raw soybeans. "All docking and loading services are shut down at every one of the 25 ports from the city of Rosario going north along the Parana River to Timbues," Edgardo Quiroga, spokesman for the CGT umbrella labor organization told Reuters.

29 Apr 2015

Argentine Port Strike May Cut Soy Flow, Raise World Food Prices

Argentina's main grains port of Rosario was paralyzed at midday on Wednesday by an open-ended wage strike by boat captains needed to help dock incoming cargo ships, the country's port management chamber said. At a busy time of the year for exporters, smack in the middle of Southern Hemisphere soy and corn harvest season, the country's dock workers also threatened a work stoppage if their own pay demands are not met. The strikes threaten to slow supply from grains powerhouse Argentina, putting upward pressure on world food prices. The country is the world's top exporter of soymeal livestock feed, its No. 3 supplier of raw soybeans and a major producer of corn and wheat.

17 Jul 2014

Strikes Halt Grains Exports from Rosario Hub

Multiple strikes paralyzed all grains exports from Argentina's pivotal Rosario export hub on Thursday, the president of the Rosario port chamber said. "All work is at a standstill. Vessels cannot be loaded or unloaded, nor trucks, nor freight trains. Everything is paralyzed," Guillermo Wade told Reuters. (Reporting by Maximilian Heath; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

11 Jun 2014

Port Workers Suspend Strike at Argentina Grains Hub

A strike by port workers at Rosario, Argentina's biggest agricultural export hub, has been suspended, thanks to a government attempt to resolve a disagreement over wage hikes, a local business group said. The protest, which was holding up 126 grains ships and affecting all terminals at the hub's ports of Timbues, Puerto General San Martin and San Lorenzo, had started on Monday. The South American country is the world's third-biggest exporter of soybeans and corn, and about 80 percent of its shipments leave from Rosario. "We have agreed a truce (to negotiate)," said Guillermo Wade, president of the Port and Maritime Activities Chamber. Labor protests are common in Argentina's soy belt, where powerful unions and companies often fight over the spoils of multimillion-dollar exports.