A private consultant recommended Cuenca del Plata Terminal (TCP, majority owned by the Belgian multinational Katoen Natie, with State participation) carry out a 24.1% rate update. The appreciation of the peso against the dollar was one of the reasons mentioned for applying the adjustment.
The terminal had not made a rate increase since 2017. Additionally, in the agreement to extend the concession of the terminal until 2081 that the government signed with Katoen Natie a discount of 30% was defined.
The report written by the consultant C.P.A. Ferrere for TCP, it indicates that the tariff reduction agreement was finalized at the beginning of 2021 taking as a reference the cost structure of the previous year on the one hand, and on the other, the estimates of incremental volume resulting from the agreement and the extension of the concession.
The letter indicates that later the increase in international inflation and the strengthening of the peso against the dollar determined a significant and unexpected change in TCP’s unit costs that are currently not reflected in the rates.
The CPA report states that 55.7% of the terminal’s costs are made up of expenses in dollars, 26.4% are salary expenses and the remaining 17.9% are general in local currency.
He explains that an indicator of average costs suggests that TCP would have registered a cost inflation of 24.1% between December 2020 and May 2023. Therefore, the mismatch verified between the fall in rates and the increase in costs determines a sharp fall of the purchasing power of the rates in terms of inputs and services necessary for the operation of the terminal.
For this reason, the consultant suggests recomposing TCP’s economic equation, in order to compensate for the unforeseen increase in costs in dollars and recommends a 24.1% update on average unit rates.
Based on the analysis, TCP announced this Monday to its customers that it will carry out a rate increase of 24.1% as of July 1.
