Overview
- The government signed the 25‑year concession on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, transferring operation to Vía Navegable Argentina S.A., the Jan de Nul–Servimagnus consortium, and the contract immediately activated a 13.5% cut in the navigation peaje.
- The concession requires dredging the Timbúes–Ocean stretch, opening Paraná Bravo, Guazú and Talavera branches, and installing modern dredging, buoying and hydrometric systems to let ships load more cargo per voyage.
- The State will remain regulator and must form a Consejo de Control with provincial and private-user representation to monitor the contract, supervise works and track tariff evolution.
- Competitors and some specialists allege the tender used tailored specifications, short timelines, a disputed evaluation commission, a scoring system that favored the winner and a $10 million non‑refundable impugnation fee that limited formal challenges.
- Export groups welcomed the deal and cited private estimates of hundreds of millions of dollars in savings, while the next steps to watch are the start of dredging, the Council’s composition and any legal challenges that could pause or reshape works.