October 2, 2006

Noble's grain port opens in Argentina to cater to China demand

Noble's grain port in Argentina has been inaugurated by Argentina's Santa Fe province governor Jorge Obeid opening the way for more soy exports to China, the country's main soy customer, local press reported.

The port, in Tinbues in Santa Fe province, was built by the domestic subsidiary of Asian group Noble at a cost of US$55 million, much of which was obtained on credit from the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

The port's new facilities include a sampling building with pneumatic probes, two weighbridges and three hydraulic unloading platforms for trucks capable of shifting 29,000t of grain a day.

Timb¨²es port already has a storage capacity of up to 2.5 million tonnes of grain and the firm would now be able to utilise this capacity with the new facilities.

Part of the reason for carrying out the project was because of increased buying of Argentinean soy by China in recent years. However, it is unclear whether China would import more processed grain or raw grains.

Although the Noble Group has invested in other south American ports and is exporting from Brazil, the firm considers Argentina as the best place to cater to increasing Asian demand due to its large ports and processing plants.

Noble also considers Argentine ports to be more efficient and competitively priced compared with other markets.