New port at Uruguays MBopicua

Plans called for linking the port’s services with the fledgling woodchip trade from eucalyptus plantations.

M’Bopicua would also ease congestion in nearby ports such as Fray Bentos. Local agricultural products could be shipped down the Uruguay River as well. And port activity overall would stimulate economic activity in neighbouring regions.

Uruguay promotes a sustainable forestry programme and more than 300,000 hectares of renewable forest have been developed. Many of these plantations were maturing just as the idea of building a new cargo terminal on the Uruguay River was conceived. Existing ports in the area did not have processing capacity so from the start plans for the M’Bopicua port included a modern wood-chipping plant which would add value to the raw material – logs.

Construction began in late 2001. The Inter-American Development Bank financed US$21m of the project’s total US$35.2m cost. Because Uruguayan law did not allow private ownership of commercial ports, M’Bopicua’s construction and operation were structured as a 30-year concession.

Concession winner Terminal Logistica e Industrial M’Bopicua S.A. (TLM), which built and is currently running the port, is a private Uruguayan subsidiary of Spain’s Grupo Empresarial ENCE which also owns 50,000 hectares of tree plantations in Uruguay.