The norm, in detail
Belgrano Cargas goes to tender: bids due 11 Nov 2026
Resolution 1350/2026
in forceNATIONAL
RIGI and investment
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 affects
The Government's official release states the size of what is being put on the table: the concession runs for 50 years, over 7,594 kilometres of track spread across 16 provinces, on the three lines. It reaches whoever wants to take the concession —rail and logistics operators, alone or in a consortium, who may bid for each line separately or add the purchase of the rolling stock— and, downstream, 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 not the tender document but who invoices the freight from 2027 on: today it is a state-owned company with an administered tariff, and it becomes 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, and since Decree 748/2026 that work on pre-existing track counts as construction for the RIGI. 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: the decree wrote, six days earlier, 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 on the table. ⇒ The buyer of the north's 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. thesis
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 meet the demand 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 meet the demand thesis
The other rules on this subject24
Super RIGI: data centers, AI and semiconductorsFirst-round approval in the Chamber of Deputies (Jun-2026), in the Senatepending
Invest in Neuquén: the 'Neuquén RIGI' that starts at USD 500,000Ley 3502 (2025) + Decreto 0097/2026in force
Ignacio Aredez· Chief analyst
Credentials and track record →
Write to us · free
Get on board the takeoff
Tell us what you are looking for and we will reply. This is what we work on: reforms, RIGI and verified program data.
no spam
we read every one
Fact sheet built on the published rule, with the gaps declared. Back to the reforms
How to read the seals → verif primary source · prob primary source pending · unconf not sufficiently backed · estim our own calculation · thesis our reading