Port of Montevideo

The Port of Montevideo is the main trading port of Uruguay.

It is located on the Río de la Plata in the Bay of Montevideo on the northern side of the peninsula on which the Ciudad Vieja is located. He played a significant function in the course of history, the city of Montevideo and Uruguay and the state. This is due to its importance as an economic center due to the export-oriented agriculture, and by the supply of trapped under the siege of Montevideo during the Guerra Grande.

History of the port

After a new pier has already been created in 1824, led the growing depth of the ships to that applying to this was no longer possible. Thus, both the loading and the deletion of the ship's cargo was from 1840 accomplished that are anchored in the bay of Montevideo ships were reached via equipped with high wheels carts which transported the cargo to the customs located in the calle Zabala. However, a redesign of the port was inevitable sooner or later.

Transformation of the port from 1901

The expansion of the port between the years 1901 and 1909 was preceded by a long planning phase.

From the originally already in 1856 established by law expansion of the port to the groundbreaking ceremony on July 18, 1901, the construction was delayed by the - as a result of the political turmoil during and after the Guerra Grande occurring among other things, by high government debt -related - financial difficulties.

After initial expansion proposals of a British company in the period from 1873 to 1875 finally decided 1896 Braunschweiger company advertised the 1889 international competition to design harbor in their favor. The construction itself was then started by a French company in 1901. Were built in the port area, for its grounds 60 ha soil was piled up next to a port facility protective dam, each a breakwater with 940 or 1300 meters in length. A 2.5 kilometer-long breakwater, together with dredging for access to the Río de la Plata, offshore terminal and two 7.5 -meter-deep harbor basin were also part of the construction work.

The completion of the fully state-funded port was indeed only in 1909, however, at least partially use already took place in 1904. Was administered, the port of which was founded in 1916 state Administración Nacional del Puerto, Montevideo. Since 1933 the administration of the centrally responsible for all ports of Uruguay Administración Nacional de Puerto incumbent (ANP ).

Current Situation

Even today the port of Montevideo is still the most important seaport of the country. In 2010 9.178.327 tons of goods were handled in the port of Montevideo. In addition to the handling of goods, it also serves the passenger shipping. The most important ferry here represents the passenger transfer through the Buquebus ferry between Montevideo and Buenos Aires Represents the number of passengers on this route was in the year 1992 138.347 people and has since risen sharply. A year later, 495 148 passengers, 716 719 passengers in 1994 and 1997 even 741 999 people already saw that used this ferry service from the port of Montevideo. By 2001 this number but was again declined, as 470 788 ship passengers operated on this route .. In 2010, 466 293 passengers used the ferry to the port of Montevideo.

Container port

In 2010, were handled in the port of Montevideo 671 952 standard containers ( TEU). Thus, the container throughput in 2010 was almost back to the level before the financial crisis of 2007 with 675 273 standard containers.