The commercial leader of the logistics company said that the country has comparative advantages with its peers in the region and highlighted the impact of the deepening of the access channel to the port of Montevideo.
CHR Group is the maritime, port and logistics group that moves the most cargo in Uruguay. The company’s beginnings in the country date back to 1892, with the emergence of Christophersen as a shipping agency, today it handles more than 500 ships per year, a business unit to which 15 companies from different links of logistics and trade have been added throughout its 133 years of uninterrupted activity in the country.
In an interview with Forbes Uruguay, Juan Azcurra, commercial manager of CHR Group, spoke about Uruguay’s positioning as a service provider and the opportunities it has despite its cost structure and scale.
Under the CHR Group umbrella is TGM, the bulk terminal at the port of Montevideo, and Ontur, a multipurpose terminal operating in Nueva Palmira where more than 1 million tons of cellulose and other products are exported. In the port terminal of Montevideo and the eastern ports it also has Planir, a logistics and cargo operator. In turn, in the coastal area, with the company Río Estiba, the group moves more than 1.2 million tons of pulp, which is then transported by barge on the Uruguay River from Fray Bentos to Nueva Palmira.
On the other hand, since 1978 Christophersen, as official distributor of Ancap, supplies foreign flag vessels with fuel delivery in Uruguayan ports and in the authorized areas of the Río de la Plata. Meanwhile, another unit, perhaps a little unknown, is the offshore division business that CHR Group provides to ships on the Atlantic coast.
The last logistics business unit added by CHR Group was the operation of the Central Railway, which moves more than 2 million tons of pulp and UPM’s inputs from Montevideo to Paso de los Toros.
“The experience is positive, it’s like the rebirth of freight rail operations in a way, because it’s new equipment, it’s a volume we weren’t used to and an extremely delicate product. Apart from bringing pulp from the mill to the port, inputs and chemicals are also brought from the port to the mill,” Azcurra explains.
Regarding the “learning curve” that is occurring with the operation of the Central Railroad, Azcurra maintains that this mode of transportation has opportunities to continue growing with new track layouts so that more agents of the productive sector can make use of this mode of transportation.
Uruguay “is not expensive” in relative terms as a provider of port services
The answer to costs
Asked about the high costs to operate in the country, the executive says that “Uruguay is an expensive country in general”, “which are the rules of the game”, and that it is “difficult” for that to change with a population of 3.5 million inhabitants. “With the characteristics of our productive matrix, it will continue to be expensive. Any specialist on the subject can tell you that,” he assures.
However, the CHR Group commercial manager considers that at port and logistics level, Uruguay “is not expensive” in relative terms as a port services provider. “If you compare yourself with Singapore, which moves much more, you are more expensive, but if you compare yourself with Santos or Buenos Aires, for example, we are not more expensive. And they move 10 or 20 times more than we do,” he says.
Azcurra highlights some strengths that Uruguay has to operate at regional level such as “cargo fluidity”, “security”, or “certainty” that avoids “a lot of costs or delays”. “For something more than 50% of the cargo we move is transit from third countries,” he adds.
A little over a year ago the port of Montevideo got Argentina’s approval to deepen its access channel from 13 to 14 meters, something that allows ships docking to leave with more cargo. “An extra meter of draft means a lot of extra money depending on the ship, it’s about 40-50 tons per centimeter of draft that you can add,” he points out. This not only benefits container or bulk cargo leaving the country, but also the import of various inputs such as fertilizers or products. “The freight and the price per ton is much more optimized,” he emphasizes.
On the other hand, Azcurra considers that the waterway has the potential to continue growing. Currently, more than 50% of the transit of goods is basically from Bolivia and Paraguay, and some from Argentina. “There is always room for improvement, but this will also depend on the projects and the volume of cargo,” he concludes.
Free translation from Spanish
Source; www.forbesuruguay.com