South American River News

South American river tugboats need robust rudder bushings: some 20 tug boats on the Parana River, running through Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, have been equipped with Vesconite rudder bushings. In the challenging waters of South American rivers, tugboat owners began ordering Vesconite’s proprietary thermoplastic rudder bushings starting in 2014. Convinced that the material – which is wear resistant, self-lubricating, environmentally-friendly, requires no grease, and easy to machine and fit – was more suitable than the bronze that has traditionally been used in the application…

A barge transporting a large quantity of petroleum moves slowly down the middle of the Parana River in South America. Though it is early evening, the pilot is enclosed in torrid heat, fetid smells from the jungle's rotting vegetation, rampant palms that reach toward him on each side of the river, and the strange, floating beauty of blue and purple hyacinths, now swaying in his wake. The insect cries are deafening, louder than a New York subway. He does not pause to swat a mosquito, for there are none. Too small for this world, they have themselves been devoured by the far more populous insects half a foot long. Floating beside the barge are frogs larger than a small dog, the easy prey of jacares, another bloated amphibian that can outgrow a crocodile.