In force since Aug 20, 2026
Belgrano Cargas goes to tender: bids due 11 Nov 2026
Resolution 1350/2026
in forceNATIONAL
RIGI and investment
Bids to concession the Belgrano, San Martín and Urquiza lines open on 11 November 2026. What the act says and what it does not.
The other rules on this subject32
What changed and who it applies to
What changed
Authorises the national and international multi-stage public tender No. 504/2-0004-LPU26, whose object is the «Concession of tracks and adjoining real estate of the General Belgrano, General San Martín and General Urquiza Lines», with an option to purchase the rolling stock (art. 1). It is processed entirely through the CONTRAT.AR platform (art. 2), where the tender documents that the same act approves can also be downloaded (art. 3). THE CALENDAR, which is the actionable part and is in the operative text (art. 5): queries until 28-10-2026 at 10:00, bid submission until 11-11-2026 at 09:59 and opening the same day at 10:00. The call is published for 10 business days in the Official Gazette, on DGMARKET and on the Ministry's site (art. 4). Articles 6 to 12 create the evaluation committee, allow clarifying circulars, order that the proceeds from the sale of the rolling stock be administered through a trust to be set up by Belgrano Cargas y Logística S.A., set the price of each rolling-stock lot from appraisals by the National Appraisal Tribunal, and revoke the instruction in art. 5 of Resolution 1049 of 22-07-2025. verif Aug 20, 2026 ↗
In force
The act is in force from its publication in the Official Gazette, on 20 August 2026, and what it sets are deadlines with fixed dates: queries close on 28-10-2026 and bids on 11-11-2026 at 09:59. verif Aug 20, 2026 ↗
Who it applies to
The concession runs for 50 years prob. The size is also stated by the official release and not by the tender document: 7,594 kilometres of track spread across 16 provinces, on the three lines, with an open-access regime, mandatory works in the first five years and the option to buy each line's rolling stock prob. Since Decreto 748/2026, renewal of existing rail infrastructure counts as construction for the RIGI verif. thesis It reaches whoever wants to take the concession —rail and logistics operators, alone or in a consortium— and, further down the chain, everyone who pays freight today to move cargo out of the north: mining in Salta, Catamarca and Jujuy, grain from the north-west and north-east, and the industry that ships through the Paraná ports. For the service supplier what changes is who invoices the freight: today a state-owned company, tomorrow a private concessionaire for 50 years. And there is a second market that opens before the freight one: a concessionaire taking on ageing track has to renew it. prob Aug 20, 2026 ↗
The norm
Resolution 1350/2026 of the Ministry of Economy (RESOL-2026-1350-APN-MEC), signed on 19 August 2026 and published in the Official Gazette on 20 August 2026 (notice 346112). Files EX-2026-78281006-APN-DGDA#MEC and EX-2026-77522689-APN-UEETATEP#MEC. Operative text of 12 articles. verif Aug 19, 2026 ↗
Our reading
thesis This tender and Decree 748/2026 are the same move read from both ends, and apart they lose half their meaning: six days earlier the decree wrote that renewing pre-existing track counts as construction for the RIGI and requires proving a "verifiable increase in transport capacity"; this act puts 7,594 km of track that need exactly that out on the market. ⇒ The buyer of northern rail works will not be the State: it will be a private concessionaire with access to the RIGI, and its first outlay is track renewal, signalling and structures. The supplier's window does not open at award but a few months later, when the concessionaire builds its investment plan — but qualification happens before, because a track-and-works bid is not prepared in the quarter it is asked for. The date that orders everything else is 11 November 2026: until then there is no one to talk to; from then on there is a name. What could break this reading: the tender coming out void on any of the three lots, or being extended — art. 6 allows clarifying circulars and, in tenders of this scale, an extension is the norm, not the exception. And there is a third one, already happening and not hypothetical: the perimeter is shrinking by resolution before bids are opened. Resolución 1214/2026 of 3 August 2026 removed Branch U15 of the Urquiza line in Entre Ríos — from km 179.3 (Paraná) to km 108.1 (El Pingo) — from Belgrano Cargas' concession, at the company's own request, because it does not operate there and does not plan to, and assigned it to ADIFSA. ⇒ The 7,594 km in the official release are an August figure, not the one that will be signed: anyone sizing a market with it has to look again before 11 November. thesis
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Where it lands, province by province2
Salta The C-14 branch —the one linking Salta to the Pacific through Socompa, and the one Taca Taca declares as its evacuation route— is part of the Belgrano line. If it is concessioned, the mining project's counterpart stops being a state company and becomes a private one with a 50-year horizon, which is the term a concentrate transport contract needs to close. For the high-altitude trucker the effect runs the other way, and it has to be said: a railway that scales up eats the long-haul bulk that goes up by truck today. mixed cheaper to respond: investing takes time, held-back supply shows up at once thesis
Catamarca Lithium currently leaves the Salar del Hombre Muerto and Tres Quebradas entirely by truck, and freight is pure cost for the supplier. The Belgrano line crosses the province: a private concessionaire with an investment obligation changes the calculation of how far out it makes sense to place a transfer yard. It is the weaker of the two inferences, because the official release does not list the provinces on the route. favorable cheaper to respond: investing takes time, held-back supply shows up at once thesis
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Analysis and curation: Ignacio Aredez
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verif primary source · prob primary source pending · unconf a source said it · estim our own calculation · thesis our reading · the date belongs to the datum, at the precision its source allows