On 27 April, Argentina’s aviation agency Administración Nacional de Aviación Civil (Argentina) or ANAC, announced that all commercial air traffic, international and local, will remain restricted until 1 September. The restriction is credit negative for Aeropuertos Argentina 2000 S.A. (AA2000, Caa3 negative) because it will receive no passenger revenue until September and the prolonged restriction comes in the middle of an exchange offer process that AA2000 initiated on 21 April to extend its 2020 debt amortization payments until May 2021.
Exporters have been paying 10% higher premiums on average in April for corn delivered at Argentina’s Bahia Blanca port compared to Up-River ports, according to a recent report by the Rosario Board of Trade (BCR). Argentina’s Parana River water depth has been slowing down grain loadings and logistics at the nation’s key waterway, costing the local grain industry $244 million in the last four months, BCR recently said.
Arcor continues to expand, with an investment project in Angola, and also plans to disburse more than $3.97 million to add share capital in the dairy company Mastellone Hnos. This option leaves the firm very close to the 49% shareholding cap agreed in 2015, when it bought 25% of the dairy company, with an initial disbursement of $50 million and a capital contribution of $10 million.
The government is tightening up access to the market for buying and selling dollars through the stock exchange, which reaches individual investors and companies. The measure may cause higher pressure on the blue market, which closed at 118 pesos on Thursday, and. will be the only path left for those seeking to continue to dollarize. The purchase limit is $200 per month per person.
In recent days, the Government, the Central Bank and the National Securities Commission have taken steps to close the exchange rate gap. However, analysts expect the dollarization of portfolios to continue. Unless the government manages to change expectations and the peso offers a positive real return; above all, an interest rate that remunerates savings in local currency above expected inflation; demand for dollars is likely to keep rising.
The cement company Loma Negra will restart today, Monday, the construction of the second line of L’Amalí, a new cement production plant, which the now Brazilian capital company had started to build in Olavarría at the end of 2017 with an investment of $350 million.
