June 25th – 2020 Harvest

June 25th 2020

2020 Harvest

In view of the ongoing developing situation and different communications and instructions being issued by Sanitary Authorities of the Argentine Government we have chosen to send a consolidated daily report at the closing of working hours with an update of the day’s news.

National Holiday: Thursday, July 09th, Independence Day and Friday July 10th “Bridge Holiday”.

Covid-19 National Quarantine: The National Quarantine has now been extended until June 28th. The press are saying that it is to be extended to July 12th, and as from July 01st further strong restrictions will come into being in the Buenos Aires area.
At the main ports the sanitary measures remain unchanged and attendance is well coordinated. The Ship’s Agency tasks are allowed to continue with few restrictions and strict sanitary procedures are applied. Upriver ports are working close to normal with strict sanitary enforcement.

As mentioned before Bahia Blanca and Necochea are very rigid imposing in nearly all cases a 14 day quarantine on arriving vessels. The 14 days are counted as from departure from the last port of call.

*** IMPORTANT *** Recalada/Zona Comun. New procedures for arriving vessels: As from Sunday June 14th, the CoastGuard medics will not be attending at Recalada. Until then the medics would board inbound vessels at anchorage Recalada prior boarding pilots. The change is that now medics are boarding vessels at Zona Comun, but only as from 0900 hours. It means that now the preliminary inspection has added cost. Each vessel must pay a launch service for the attending medics and additionally the pilots charge an anchoring fee. This will amount to additional cost as follows:
USD 1,200.00 launch service, Monday to Friday. Saturdays, Sundays and National Holidays USD 1,680.00

plus

USD ——– Pilot’s anchoring fee calculated as follows: USD 14.00 per Fiscal Unit of the vessel. FUs are calculated basis (LOA x Beam x Molded depth)/800.

Crew changes: Crew changes in Argentina and Uruguay are not possible until further notice. The borders are closed. No international flights allowed.

Crew, Covid 19: Crew are not allowed to go ashore, even if they wanted to. Most ports are allowing minimum access to shore for officers performing draft readings and nothing else. Even medical calls to shore are very restricted. Doctor must inspect crew onboard and if it is deemed necessary then permission must be obtained from both Immigration and Sanitary Authority before the crewmen are allowed to receive further treatment or medical examination. Over the last few days Immigration have become more reluctant to grant these permits.

Recalada: Recalada closes often due to swell and high winds. Usual during the early winter months.

Necochea: The port closed today, June 25th at 1740 hours due to high swell and high winds.

Bahia Blanca: Pilotage service is being rendered normally.

Vicentin: Today the talk was that the National Government was quiet. The provincial Government, Santa Fe, were working on a deal that would involve them and several creditors, mainly farmer’s coops. The Senate passed a dubious bill setting up an Investigation Commission to “investigate” Vicentin. It now goes to the Lower House, Deputies.

2020 Harvest and Sowing season: The 2020 maize harvest is now 78.3 per cent completed. The projection is still at 50 million tons over all. 74.1 per cent of the sorghum has been lifted. The overall forecast is 2.5 million tons. 71.1 per cent of the projected wheat area has already been sown.

Export licenses: Licenses were issued on Wednesday, June 24th for 87,000 metric tons of soya meal and 9,100 metric tons of maize


Maize, soya meal and soya beans:
3,299 trucks were tallied at Upriver ports. Of these 1,666 were maize and 1,199 were soya beans. Other grains and by products were the remaining. Cargill took delivery of 30 rail wagons at Punta Alvear. 1,230 trucks were counted at Bahia Blanca. 742 were maize.
The ratio is 32 tons per truck and 45 tons per wagon.

Will keep you posted.

Best regards,
Antares Servicios Maritimos S.A.

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