On May 31, the company Orbiplus SApart of the important maritime logistics group Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC)notified the National Ports Administration (ANP) that intended to deliver the area of 8,900 square meters for which it is the permit holder.
According to the local media, La Diaria, The contract for that space in the port of Montevideo was signed on August 1, 2019 and expires on August 1. Despite the relative proximity of the expiration, sources close to Orbiplus indicated to the media that the company is no longer operating and will leave the country once the ANP confirms that the warehouse area was delivered to it.
The main reason for Orbiplus SA to leave the country is that the Cuenca del Plata Terminal (TCP) “changed the conditions” for the entry of cargo. In turn, he indicated that despite the attempts, the port terminal – of which the Belgian group Katoen Natie is the majority partner (80%) – “is not interested in negotiating.”
Company sources highlighted that they did not obtain responses from the ANP – a minority partner of the TCP (20%) – either.
In the letter sent to ANP, which La Diaria accessed, the company expands and details the reasons. In the first instance, it highlights “the monopolistic situation in which, as a result of the decisions, new regulations and standards” adopted by the ANP, the port of Montevideo has been left in relation to container operations.
The company also emphasizes that this scenario “has directly impacted” the company’s business, since it has lost “the container movements” it had with one of its “main clients”, due to the “contractual conditions imposed the only container terminal that shipping lines can currently operate with.”
On the other hand, the company indicated that on repeated occasions it raised with the ANP the “need to adapt the fee to be paid” in the area it uses, given that the price “was not in line with the activity it provided, the market price , and even what other operators in direct competition pay” within the Port of Montevideo. “The only thing we received were denials of all kinds from the ANP,” the company highlighted in the message.
Orbiplus concluded in that communication that with the fee they had they could not work because the outlook was “unviable” economically. “Everything seems to indicate that there is a manifest interest on the part of the port administration to remove us from the area and the way they have found to do so is to propose paying an exorbitant fee,” the company stressed.
The director of the ANP representing the Frente Amplio, Alejandra Koch, told La Diaria that from the administration “there is not much to do,” because the commercial area has analyzed the canon and has reported that “it is the one that corresponds.” .
On the other hand, Orbiplus added that his departure also meant the cessation of activities in the Port of Montevideo of Medlog SA, company that collaborated in the logistical process of transporting the containers to the warehouse facility. He added that in his case it also implies the loss of jobs, specifically 13, as the newspaper learned after consulting sources from the Single Port Union and Related Branches (Supra).
The impact of the departure of Orbiplus SA
Koch stressed to La Diaria that MSC, a shipping company that connected with Orbiplus SA – part of its group – in the Port of Montevideo, is one of those responsible for the growth that has taken place in the port terminal in terms of container circulation.
“This relationship between Orbiplus SA and MSC is not minor, a shipping company that is withdrawing from the port area as a result of the application of the monopoly,” he concluded in his diagnosis of the situation.
The leader emphasized that, before this decision by Orbiplus SA, the important international shipping company MSC has already withdrawn some traffic, specifically around 40,000 movements have been transferred to Buenos Aires. On the other hand, he also added that the income generated by the contract with Orbiplus SA for the ANP for the use of space in the port of Montevideo was around two million dollars per year.
The director of the ANP also made reference to the possible loss of jobs that would be added to those that “have occurred from the application of the monopoly provided for by the agreement with Katoen Natie.”
“When we made the first analysis of the consequences that could exist as a result of this agreement, we said that this application of the monopoly was going to affect more companies.” [más allá de Montecon]“said the opposition representative.
Finally, Koch specifically referred to the impact that the departure of this company may have on port operations themselves, which are currently “overwhelmed.” “Orbiplus SA acted a bit as a decongestion, more or less 30% of the containers were transferred by Medlog to its warehouse and from there the delivery was made to the client,” explained the manager. “The operation is getting worse, the delays may be longer,” she said.
Workers
Alejandro Díaz, president of Supraconfirmed to the newspaper that there are 13 workers who would be affected by the cessation of Orbiplus SA activities in the port of Montevideo.
The leader added that the union is already working to relocate them. Likewise, he added that, for the moment, the company told them that there was the possibility that “some” could move to other related companies in the group, but the rest would be separated.
Díaz explained that, since the company has not yet made a decision, there are no union measures in the pipeline. Likewise, he explained that everything should be clear, at least before August 1 (when Orbiplus SA’s contract with the ANP ends).
The union representative recalled that the company previously worked with Montecon and after the agreement reached with Katoen Natie it went to TCP. Finally, he explained that currently the company operated with around “250 containers per week.”
