Dock Sur remains principal BA port

The Dock Sur port remains the principal port facility in Buenos Aires province, accounting for 50% of all ships docking in Buenos Aires province, according to Jose Luis Garrido, president of the province's ports and logistics department. Located in the Avellaneda suburb of Buenos Aires, Dock Sur handles oil and petrochemicals vessels, bulk and general cargo and containers, since 1995. Shell and Repsol YPF both have facilities there. While not the deepest facility, with a maximum draft of 29.3ft, the port handled 2,700 ships in 2002, up from 2479 in 2000, and has handled 8,000-plus ships over the last three years. It is on track to beat the 2,700 figure this year, he added. Port throughput in 2002 was 9.34Mt, down slightly from 2000. This is 20% of all port throughput in the province, which has seven other port facilities, of which La Plata is the second-largest. Fuels made up 53% of Dock Sur's business. Future investments will go to making sure container-handling capacity remains in step with demand, although Garrido did not mention planned investment figures. He was speaking at the XIII ports, waterways, multi-modal transport and foreign trade seminar in Buenos Aires this week.