Uruguay's government is forging ahead with the project for a deepwater port in the Department region of Rocha, reports Business News Americas
The Uruguay government is backing the Rocha deepwater port project with the vision of expanding the country's limited export capacity and making the country a logistics hub for the whole region.
Given its geographic characteristics, a deepwater port in Rocha's El Palenque is a natural fit to handle post-Panamax ships, said BNamericas. Such large freighters with a capacity of some 13,000TEUs are expected to dock in Latin America's ports by the end of the decade.
"It's an opportunity for Uruguay because there is not such a deepwater port on that part of South America's Atlantic coast," Ricardo Sánchez, head of the infrastructure unit at the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac), previously told BNamericas.
But the project is not on firm ground. Due to volume calculations being unconfirmed, private investors have been reluctant to take on "such a risk with little visibility regarding the port's real opportunities."
BNamericas estimates total costs could reach some USD800 million and the government seems oriented towards a PPP scheme where the private sector invests and bears the risks under a build-operate-transfer (BOT) model.
Source: Business News Americas
