MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

A port dispute in Montevideo blocks a second ferry operator on the Buenos Aires route

Port of Montevideo

Uruguayan ferry company Colonia Express obtained authorisation from the Ministry of Transport and Public Works at the end of July to operate the passenger and vehicle route between Montevideo and Buenos Aires, but cannot begin the service because the only ramp at the Montevideo port suitable for unloading cars belongs to Buquebus, the company that currently runs the crossing alone.

A pontoon of this kind is the floating platform that allows vehicles carried in ships' holds to be loaded and unloaded. The one at the Maciel pier was built by Buquebus after it obtained the passenger terminal concession in 1996, and ceased to form part of public infrastructure in 2016, when the National Ports Administration terminated that concession. Colonia Express is asking the authorities to establish shared use; Buquebus opposes it.

Sources at the National Ports Administration told the Montevideo newspaper El País the matter is one “between private parties” and that the body has received no formal documentation on the authorisation. They said any ferry operation may use public berths or be agreed privately, but that the pontoon is not part of the authority's pier, so the decision on its use rests with its owner. Ministry officials said the file is within its review period and that administrative appeals are under way.

Colonia Express director Sebastián Planas announced the company will go to court seeking an injunction against both the ministry and the ports authority. “The ministry must respond to us and give us a solution, but on the other hand it is the ports authority that should require Buquebus to share the pontoon or remove it,” he told the outlet El Observador. The company also argues the state of the Maciel pier does not allow a second platform to be installed, and it aims to operate during the coming summer season.

The pier, 380 metres long with a five-metre draught, has dredging problems and maintenance shortfalls that cause periods of inactivity. A tender for its reconstruction is under way, with specifications still being drawn up. In March, the National Ports Administration declared of interest a private initiative submitted by Buquebus to rebuild the pier and modernise the terminal, valued at between 66 and 100 million dollars with a concession estimated at fifty years. That declaration gives the company preference in the tender process.

Between January and July, more than 500,000 passengers and 57,000 vehicles crossed the River Plate on this route. Buquebus, owned by Argentine businessman Juan Carlos López Mena, recorded 70,000 more boarding and disembarking movements than in the same period last year. Colonia Express has operated since 2007. The company has made no public statement on the pontoon.