MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Mujica confirms: no intention of irritating Argentina on pulp mills’ controversy
Uruguay’ President Jose Mujica said the decision authorizing a possible expansion, or not, of the UPM/Botnia pulp mill is closely linked to Argentina and the construction of a third plant along an inside Uruguayan river and not a shared one as is the case now. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesYes, its everyone else's fault. Argentina is the innocent party in all this! Those damn Americans and the West - how dare they uphold the law! I am Cristina Kirchner - don't they know that?
Sep 06th, 2013 - 03:38 am - Link - Report abuse 0And who would believe wimp Mujica? What's in it for the coward?
Sep 06th, 2013 - 04:57 am - Link - Report abuse 0' ”... instead of exporting tree trunks and chips, we can begin sending pulp (to Argentina), which is more expensive and needs more added value”.'
Sep 06th, 2013 - 05:55 am - Link - Report abuse 0Chris or ano, can you explain (in simple English) what he is trying to say - I think something is lost in translation.
Argentina and Uruguay together like the brothers we are... a bond that stands the test of time.
Sep 06th, 2013 - 08:54 am - Link - Report abuse 03 GeoffWard2
Sep 06th, 2013 - 10:27 am - Link - Report abuse 0He's saying Uruguay can start a pulping industry adding value to the product rather than just exporting the raw material for others to add value to.
While I agree on doing all on having good diplomatic relationships, he bows too low and leech too hard, our president shames us.
Sep 06th, 2013 - 11:09 am - Link - Report abuse 03 GeoffWard2
Sep 06th, 2013 - 01:07 pm - Link - Report abuse 0We already export pulp from the mill on the Plate.
Pepe, mixing everything up as usual, I believe means that if the Negro Mill comes on stream there will be no need to export trunks and chips: it will ALL be pulp, hence closing the ring.
Pulp is more expensive (more added value by the workers of the mill and thus taxable by the ROU) and is sought after by more traders than the unprocessed items due to the transport costs being lower and NO processing costs before tissue / paper manufacture..
I know from personal experience with Kimberley Clark that the pulp bales go directly into the final processing mills for making Kleenex products.
The trunks have to be sent to the raw mill first (for pulping which adds cost and possible production delays when the quality turns out to be below that required) and then transported across the north of England from Sunderland to Cumbria.
The quality of the SA pulp is also known before purchase and the tissue mills can programme the production for using these bales whilst they are still on the high seas. The whole thing is a massive integrated web from SA to boxes of finished tissues in the market.
Tell them about the eucalypto and its hunger for water, Chris. Tell them the whole story.
Sep 06th, 2013 - 01:22 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Regardless of what they say on the other side of the border...
8 Stevie
Sep 06th, 2013 - 03:10 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I have never looked at that side of things, but being a suculent I would imagine a fair amount of water is needed.
You are not suggesting the ROU is short on water are you?
Hey thanks guys, I will have more respect for my humble Kleenex from now on!
Sep 06th, 2013 - 04:12 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Good old president Jose Chamberlain Mujica, a true hero.
Sep 07th, 2013 - 06:40 am - Link - Report abuse 0Nah, Mujica wont feed the tiger, that's a PM's job. Chamberlain, Blair.... you know...
Sep 07th, 2013 - 10:57 am - Link - Report abuse 0I would expect a country's president to have a little more backbone.
Sep 07th, 2013 - 11:23 am - Link - Report abuse 0I'll accept that Uruguay is small and squeezed between two overbearing neighbours, however kowtowing to either of them has not done Uruguay much good during its history.
More Switzerland and less Poland!
Stevie an interesting comment on eucalyptus transpiration. I have tried to look up how much water vapour a mature eucalypt tree releases daily into the atmosphere but I think its about 200 liters per day, though correct me if I am mistaken. Plantations are of 1,100 trees per hectare and multiply that by the number hectares of forestry planted and it adds up to a hell of a lot of water extracted from the subsoil
Sep 08th, 2013 - 08:25 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Add to this the increasing damming of the headwaters on the rivers for rice irrigation which requires a coverage of 1meter 10 cms per ha during the growing season, none of which returns to the watercourses
Uruguay usually expects 60% of its electric power to come from hydro generation stations of which there are four. One at Salto shared with Argentina and three on the Rio Negro, almost all of which are base load stations dependent on run of river. The exception is Rincon de Bonete which has a large storage lake
I visited this facility some days ago. At the end of winter the reservoir should be almost full but it was 5meters below maximum generation level with the resultant loss of power production
For some years the floodgates have never been opened to carry off excess water flow. So is there a water problem? Yes I think so
As for Mujicas idea of installing a pulp plant on the Rio Negro, first it will need a lot of water and secondly the Rio Negro is an affluent into the Rio Uruguay so Argentina will squawk about pollution anyway
“Argentina will squawk...” Sure, they do it all the time, it´s a hobby it seems.
Sep 08th, 2013 - 11:43 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“... reservoir should be almost full...”
Winter is not the best season to fill Uruguayan dams, it rains more on autumn and spring.
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