Terport Villeta
Parana River
Paraguay’s Economy
Parana River
The Parana river is mostly navigable in south-central South America running through Brazil in the north, then Paraguay and Argentina for 3,030 miles and is second to the Amazon river in all South America. Parana means “like the sea” in Tupi (Brazil) language. It passes through the capital city of Asuncion on the left bank and merges with the Paraguay river. Villeta inland port is 2.5 miles south of Asuncion. The river goes through Argentina passing Uruguay before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean at Rio de la Plata which equals the volume of water at the Mississippi River delta. Terport feeder vessels pass through Uruguay, port of Montevideo (MVD) and Argentina, port of Buenos Aires (BUE) on the Rio de la Plata estuary.
Navemar and CMP Group (Compania Maritima Paraguaya) are shareholders of Terport (50-50). Both companies operate their own feeder vessels. All shipments pass through MVD-BUE and all cargo is transported from/to Paraguay in feeder vessels. All main shipping lines operate in Paraguay and therefore Terport.
The new Villeta container terminal is a $40 million investment. “The project is in three phases which involve the gradual jump from reach stacker to rubber-tired gantry (RTG) crane operations. In the final phase, the RTG block would jump from 2 to 6 and our operational capacity would multiply by three,” said Gunther.
Gunther joined the Terport family in late 2005 as a warehouse and quay supervisor, then advanced to operations manager until 2010. He deepened his expertise by earning a master’s degree in Maritime Affairs specializing in Port Management at WMU in Malmo-Sweden for 15 months. He returned to Terport in 2011 as operations manager and is part of the Board of Directors.
“The macro plan for Terport Villeta involves a new logistics park on 370 acres in front of the container terminal. We have the project ready for execution and would accommodate approximately 20 industries,” he added. The country’s economic growth and recent trade agreements will flow with these developments at Terport.
