Louis Dreyfus Company Inaugurates Expansion of its Fluvial Barge Fleet for Agricultural Product Transportation
Asunción, Paraguay, August 12, 2024 – Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) today inaugurated the addition of a new barge convoy to the fleet of its Logico Paraguay fluvial transportation subsidiary.
The expansion includes 12 new Paraguayan-flagged jumbo barges with a nominal capacity to transport 30,000 tons of solid products, representing a 20% increase in Logico Paraguay‘s fluvial transport capacity.
With this fleet, LDC primarily transports corn, soybeans and soy derivatives (meal and oil) from various ports in Paraguay to ports in Argentina and Uruguay, where they are processed by the company and/or transshipped to ocean-going vessels for subsequent shipment to global destinations. On the return journey to Paraguay, the upstream flow supports the import of other agricultural goods – such as fertilizers – for the domestic market.
The enlarged barge fleet inauguration took place at the Chaco Paraguayo shipyard, where the vessels were built, with a celebration launching one of the barges into the Paraguay river. The event was attended by the President of Paraguay, Santiago Peña, and several of the country’s ministers, as well as various LDC senior management representatives.
“LDC’s strategic presence in the main port complexes of Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay places us in a privileged position along the Paraná-Paraguay waterway, to provide logistics solutions for the commercialization of agricultural products,” said Juan José Blanchard, LDC’s Group COO and Head for Latin America, speaking at the event. “Our enlarged barge fleet will reinforce our capacity to address growing demand for fluvial freight services, in response to growing international business activities in the region.”
“In a year that marks the 20th anniversary of LDC’s operations in Paraguay, we are proud to celebrate the realization of an investment that reaffirms our company’s commitment to growing with the country and supporting its agro-industrial development – in this case, enhancing the competitiveness of Paraguayan agricultural products by facilitating more efficient access to demanding export markets,” said Alejandro Calabrese, LDC’s Country Manager for Paraguay and Director of Logico Paraguay.
“Today is a very important day, as we not only celebrate the inauguration of new barges, but also the opportunity to recognize the Paraguayans who have worked for decades in this shipyard,” said President Santiago Peña. “Although we have the third largest fleet of barges in the world, I am convinced that our waterway is not even close to its full potential,” he concluded, highlighting the role of public-private cooperation to continue driving its development.
The expanded fleet, which will consist of 4 tugboats and 92 barges, is expected to be operational in January 2025. It will have a nominal static capacity of 150,000 metric tons and capacity to transport 1.6 million metric tons of products annually.
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About Louis Dreyfus Company
Louis Dreyfus Company is a leading merchant and processor of agricultural goods, founded in 1851. We leverage our global reach and extensive asset network to serve our customers and consumers around the world, delivering the right products to the right location, at the right time – safely, reliably and responsibly. Our activities span the entire value chain, from farm to fork, across a broad range of business lines (platforms): Carbon Solutions, Coffee, Cotton, Food & Feed Solutions, Freight, Global Markets, Grains & Oilseeds, Juice, Rice and Sugar. We help feed and clothe some 500 million people every year by originating, processing and transporting approximately 80 million tons of products. Louis Dreyfus Company is active in over 100 countries across six geographical regions, and employs approximately 18,000 people globally. For more information, visit www.ldc.com and follow us on LinkedIn, X and WeChat (ID: we_are_ldc).
About Logico Paraguay
Logico Paraguay is a fluvial transport subsidiary of Louis Dreyfus Company, established in 2007 to transport agricultural goods through the Paraná-Paraguay waterway for export to global markets. With 4 tugboats and 92 barges, its fleet has a nominal static capacity of 150,000 metric tons and capacity to transport 1.6 million metric tons of products annually. For more information, visit www.ldc.com/py.
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