A meeting that technical teams from the Ministry of Transportation of the Nation and the province of Buenos Aires and officials from the Ministry of Energy were going to hold with carriers to address claims for a rate update and the supply of diesel was suspended at the last minute by differences about the representation of each of the parties.
Faced with this situation,The carriers announced that the force measures will continue “Indefinitely”.
the protests
The meeting was to take place at 5 pm in the Freight Transportation area of the Ministry of Transportation, in downtown Buenos Aires, after this Wednesday morning a traffic cut will be carried out on the Buenos Aires-La Plata highwaywhich began around 6 o’clock at the height of the Dock Sud toll booth to the Federal Capital, while the second day of protest by truckers in Tucumán.
The Buenos Aires protest was carried out by truck owners who claim for the updating of cargo rates, the lack of diesel in different areas of the country and the surcharges that are registered in the price of fuel.
In relation to the suspended hearing, the national director of Freight Transport, Juan Manuel Escudero, explained to Télam that “the meeting was not held because they did not agree among themselves due to differences in representativeness between some chambers and unions”while the carriers reported that they chose not to attend because they were not going to be attended by the Minister of Transportation, Alexis Guerrera.
Escudero is the one who carries out all the meetings for the adequacy of rates in the cargo sector and will resume that role next Wednesday at 2:00 p.m.. His management called for a new update with the participation of the four national transport chambers and cargo providers.
This is the Federation. Argentina of Business Entities of Freight Transport (Fadeeac), the Argentine Confederation of Freight Motor Transport (Catac), the Federation of Argentine Transporters (Fetra) and the Argentine Federation of Transport and Logistics Entities (Faetyl), in addition to the entities agrarian and cargo givers that complement the table.
In that sense, Escudero understood that “today’s claim loses support because the table is already convened for Wednesday, and because that same space allowed to update the rates according to cost structures by 42.5% so far of 2022”.
However, after making the decision not to attend the meeting on the grounds that Minister Guerrera was not going to attend, the carriers ratified the continuation of the protests “for an indefinite period of time until the necessary measures are taken.”
At par, in Tucumán, the Association of Freight Carriers carried out the second day of strike in that province in claim for lack of diesel and the comparison of fuel prices with Buenos Aires, a situation that affects various sectors of the local economy, including the sugar industry, which, as a result of the force measure, has interrupted the harvest since Tuesday.
“Despite the measures taken by the industry to face the harvest with the due provision in terms of energy supply and inputs, Tucumán had to interrupt its harvest due to the strike of carriers that affects the province,” said a statement issued by the Sugar Center. Argentinian.
The entity pointed out that stopping the activity of the sugar mills “means an important disorder, especially in terms of economic damage, which implies the rupture of the chain harvesting, transporting and grinding cane, and the fall in jobs and services included in it. “.
The Minister of Transport of the province of Buenos Aires, Jorge D’Onofrio, assured that both the supply of diesel and the issue of “surcharges, which arise whenever there is a shortage”, are “in the process of being solved”.
He also said that the protest carried out by carriers on the Buenos Aires-La Plata highway, which kept traffic totally interrupted for more than two hours on the road that goes to the city of Buenos Aires, in the middle of rush hour, “absolutely surprised” because It has been “working with the transport cameras” to find a solution.
In that sense, the Buenos Aires official sHe pointed out that they glimpse “a modus operandi” in relation to certain claims and maintained that “the moment of the cut is striking”given that “there were worse moments” in terms of shortages in the supply of diesel, for which he anticipated that “the corresponding complaint” will be made for its investigation.
fuel supply
In a similar vein, regarding the prospect of a solution to the diesel supply problem, the director of the Confederation of Hydrocarbons and Allied Trade Entities (Cecha), Carlos Gold, considered that the situation “will begin to normalize in ten days” since mid-July the drawbacks would already be overcome.
A similar projection was made in sectoral sources that reported that the implementation of the committed increase in diesel imports by the companies YPF, Shell, Pan American Energy and Trafigura, the increase in the biodiesel cut from 5 to 12.5% and the fiscal adequacy for the sale of fuel will begin to show its effects
The same sources recalled that the oil industry dispatched 12% more diesel volumes in the last quarter of March-May compared to the pre-pandemic, to meet a level of internal demand that is at the highest levels in recent years.
Faced with this scenario, the industry as a whole dispatched 3.9 million cubic meters of diesel in the March-May quarter, 12% more than in 2019, when 3.4 million were dispatched.
Based on the demand of different sectors demanding a better supply of diesel in different parts of the country, it was highlighted that in the local market growth is observed in some provinces with strong agricultural production, which is not directly correlated with the level of activity affected by imbalances in local and international prices.
Domínguez: “There will be no shortage of diesel for sowing or harvesting”
The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Julián Domínguez, assured the supply of diesel for planting and harvesting grains.
“Diesel oil will not be lacking for planting or harvesting, although surely we will have difficulties,” Domínguez said this afternoon during his presentation at the Chamber of Deputies’ Agriculture Committee.
In this sense, the national official considered that “the difficulties are visible and they exist, but I don’t think that what Argentine production needs is lacking.” He maintained that the government “is going to weather the storm.”
Thus, he stated that “there is a greater demand for fuel and undesired consequences. We have the claim of the producers of all the prices they pay and we are working on it. Every day there is a new demand.”
As he explained, the response obtained by the national portfolio from the agencies in charge of solving the supply of fuel is that “there are problems in logistics, but diesel will not be lacking.”
The head of the agricultural portfolio pointed out that in 15 days three ships with diesel oil will enter the country.
Likewise, he announced that from the biofuel industry they indicated that between 7 and 12 days the cutting operation would be fully operational, which was temporarily raised by the Government from 5% to 12%.
“These two elements guarantee us that the sector will be supplied in the next two months,” the official concluded.
