The Port of Rosario is an inland port

Port

A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....

 and a major goods-shipping center of Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, located in the city of Rosario

Rosario

Rosario is the largest city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the western shore of the Paraná River and has 1,159,004 residents as of the ....

, province

Provinces of Argentina

Argentina is subdivided into twenty-three provinces and one autonomous city...

 of Santa Fe

Santa Fe Province

The Invincible Province of Santa Fe, in Spanish Provincia Invencible de Santa Fe , is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco , Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Santiago del Estero...

, on the right-hand (western) shore of the Paraná River

Paraná River

The Paraná River is a river in south Central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina for some . It is second in length only to the Amazon River among South American rivers. The name Paraná is an abbreviation of the phrase "para rehe onáva", which comes from the Tupi language...

, about 550 km upstream from the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

.

Overview

The port is the largest of a series located in the several cities of the Greater Rosario

Greater Rosario

Greater Rosario is the metropolitan area of the city of Rosario, in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. This metropolis has a population of about 1.5 million , thus being Argentina's second most populated urban settlement, after Buenos Aires....

 that lie on the Paraná; the last (northernmost) able of overseas traffic being Puerto General San Martín

Puerto General San Martín

Puerto General San Martín is a small city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina, located within the metropolitan area of Greater Rosario, about north from the center of the city of Rosario, on the western shore of the Paraná River...

 (23 km upstream from Rosario). It is part of the Bi-Oceanic Corridor that joins the Atlantic with the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

 via Buenos Aires, Rosario, Córdoba

Córdoba Province (Argentina)

Córdoba is a province of Argentina, located in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are : Santiago del Estero, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, La Pampa, San Luis, La Rioja and Catamarca...

, the Cuyo region and Valparaíso

Valparaíso

Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...

, Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

; going north-south it forms the axis of the Paraguay

Paraguay River

The Paraguay River is a major river in south central South America, running through Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina...

-Paraná Hydroway. It directly services the area of Santa Fe that produces a large part of Argentine exports, and indirectly the whole Mercosur

Mercosur

Mercosur or Mercosul is an economic and political agreement among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Founded in 1991 by the Treaty of Asunción, which was later amended and updated by the 1994 Treaty of Ouro Preto. Its purpose is to promote free trade and the fluid movement of goods, people,...

 trade bloc

Trade bloc

A trade bloc is a type of intergovernmental agreement, often part of a regional intergovernmental organization, where regional barriers to trade, are reduced or eliminated among the participating states.-Description:...

. In 2003 the traffic in the port amounted to 2.9 million tonne

Tonne

The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...

s.
At this point of the course of the Paraná (Kilometer 420) lies the depth transition between overseas and river navigation. The main channel of the river directly in front of the port has an advantageous configuration that allows to preserve a depth of 34 feet with minor periodic dredging

Dredge

Dredging is an excavation activity or operation usually carried out at least partly underwater, in shallow seas or fresh water areas with the purpose of gathering up bottom sediments and disposing of them at a different location...

. This allows for downstream navigation of vessels up to Panamax

Panamax

Panamax and New Panamax are popular terms for the size limits for ships traveling through the Panama Canal. Formally, the limits and requirements are published by the Panama Canal Authority titled "Vessel Requirements"...

 kind. The Paraná is about 600 m wide at Kilometer 418 and becomes 2,000 m wide downstream. Cargo

Cargo

Cargo is goods or produce transported, generally for commercial gain, by ship, aircraft, train, van or truck. In modern times, containers are used in most intermodal long-haul cargo transport.-Marine:...

 from other parts of Argentina is brought into the port by the railway

Rail transport

Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...

 lines of the Nuevo Central Argentino

Nuevo Central Argentino

Nuevo Central Argentino S. A. is an Argentine company that exploits the operation and infrastructure of the national railway system of the former Ferrocarril General Bartolomé Mitre division of Ferrocarriles Argentinos, by a concession granted on 23 December 1992 as part of railway privatisation...

, communicating with Córdoba

Córdoba, Argentina

Córdoba is a city located near the geographical center of Argentina, in the foothills of the Sierras Chicas on the Suquía River, about northwest of Buenos Aires. It is the capital of Córdoba Province. Córdoba is the second-largest city in Argentina after the federal capital Buenos Aires, with...

 (west) and Zárate, Buenos Aires Province (south), as well as the multiple national and provincial roads and highways that converge in Rosario. Communication with the north-eastern part of the country was enhanced by the 2003 opening of the Rosario-Victoria Bridge

Rosario-Victoria Bridge

Rosario-Victoria Bridge is the informal name of the physical connection between the Argentine cities of Rosario and Victoria ....

, that joins the city with the province of Entre Ríos

Entre Ríos Province

Entre Ríos is a northeastern province of Argentina, located in the Mesopotamia region. It borders the provinces of Buenos Aires , Corrientes and Santa Fe , and Uruguay in the east....

. The Rosario International Airport

Rosario International Airport

Rosario - Islas Malvinas International Airport is located west-northwest from the center of Rosario, a city in the Santa Fe Province of Argentina...

 (located 15 km east) has also been refurbished to work with cargo traffic.

The facilities were opened in 1852 partly as a hedge against the political and armed conflicts that ultimately led to the Federalization of Buenos Aires. The rapid development of Argentine agriculture after 1875 led to the port growth into a significant role in the nation's burgeoning grain exports sector, in subsequent decades. The Port of Rosario was nationalized in 1942 and by 1960, it had overtaken the Port of Buenos Aires

Port of Buenos Aires

The Port of Buenos Aires is the principal maritime port in Argentina. Operated by the Administración General de Puertos , a State enterprise, it is the leading transshipment point for the foreign trade of Argentina....

 as the nation's leading grain export hub.

The Port of Rosario has, since 1994, been managed by ENAPRO (Ente Administrador del Puerto Rosario), a public company overseen by the provincial government, which grants concessions as appropriate to private companies.
The first bid was won in 1998 by nternational Container Terminal Servic (ICTSI)
, managers of the Port of Manila

Manila

Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...

 and of a terminal in the Port of Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

. ICTSI's Argentine subsidiary, Puerto Rosario S. A. (PROSA), faced labour conflicts and strike

Strike action

Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

s after firing a number of port terminal workers it had promised to keep. It also failed to pay the royalties due to the ENAPRO and to perform the agreed investments. In 2000 the concession was revoked.
In 2002 a new company, Terminal Puerto Rosario S. A. (manager of the Port of Tarragona

Tarragona

Tarragona is a city located in the south of Catalonia on the north-east of Spain, by the Mediterranean. It is the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and the capital of the Catalan comarca Tarragonès. In the medieval and modern times it was the capital of the Vegueria of Tarragona...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

) was awarded the concession of Terminals 1 and 2 of the port for 30 years.

In October 2005 the National Secretariat of Ports and Navigable Ways ordered the beginning of works to dredge the Paraná to a depth of 34 feet, in the first stage, and later to 36 feet, downstream from Puerto General San Martín; this will allow for cargo vessels of up to 50,000 tonne

Tonne

The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...

s. The 34-feet stage (allowing for 46,600-tonne ships) was completed in August 2006.
More Information:
PUERTO ROSARIO