This Friday the final project for the expansion of the Specialized Container Terminal (TCP) of the Port of Montevideo by the Belgian company Katoen Natie.
The event, which began at 6:00 p.m., featured the presence of the President of the Republic, Luis Lacalle Pou, who arrived around 7:00 p.m. and was received at the Port of Montevideo by the CEO of Katoen Natie, Fernand Huts, and the president of the National Ports Administration (ANP), Juan Curbelo. Also present was the Minister of Transport and Public Works, José Luis Falero, among other government authorities.
The planned investment in TCP exceeds 600 million dollarssaid from Katoen Natie, a multinational of Belgian origin that operates in 36 countries on 5 continents
Leonardo Carreno
President Luis Lacalle Pou in the announcement of the works plan for TCP by Katoen Natie
The works will triple the capacity of the Port of Montevideo, by adding a second 22-hectare container beach and with the construction of a second pier of 730 meters which will give rise to two new berths for the largest ships in the world, reported from Katoen Natie.
On the other hand, heThe works will include the modernization of truck accesses in the terminal, and it will also invest in new top-level computer systems, according to the company.
In February 2021, the government of Lacalle Pou closed an agreement with Katoen Natiewho promised to do not start a millionaire lawsuit against the Uruguayan State. In return, he extended the concession of the Cuenca del Plata Terminal to the company until 2081.
But Katoen Natie then also compromised a investment of US$ 450 million, which will be reflected in the works that were announced this Friday.
Lacalle’s anecdote: “These Belgians stay”
Leonardo Carreno
President Luis Lacalle Pou with Fernand and Karine Huts
Lacalle Pou recalled how he met the Huts familywhen I was Senator for the National Party. “Two or three years before the election something happened that is never good, which is when cooperation is exchanged for conflict,” she recalled.
The president pointed out that the conflict in the port had worsened “so much” that a “family business” like Katoen Natie was thinking of “selling.”
“It’s not the day to remember things that weren’t pretty. But there was also the possibility of a trial, that’s what was happening,” Lacalle Pou said in his speech.
“I was a senator and as I was always interested in logistics and port issues, I went to the El Andaluz road andI asked the whole Huts family for a meeting. Because she believed that she was the boss,” the president ironized in relation to Karine Huts, wife of Fernand, owner and creator of Katoen Natie.
The president recalled that the meeting “was long” and after eating he asked to go to the bathroom. “I entered through the kitchen and Mrs. Huts was there and I look out the window and see some canes and some tomatoes. And I ask her: what is that?” Lacalle Pou said. It was then that Karine Huts told him that she was planting tomatoes.
“And inside I said: ‘These Belgians are staying. Because if they are planting, it is that they continue,” said the president, who added that “what was needed” was to “agree.”
“We are confident that this investment is not only good, it will bring work, it will help a productive Uruguay, but we can, as we like in this uncertain world, have the confidence and certainty of looking at the long term “, concluded the president in his speech.
