The Belgrano Cargas network moves export grains and other goods across 17 of Argentina’s provinces

Belgrano Cargas Privatization

https://buenosairesherald.com/business/infrastructure/milei-government-formally-begins-cargo-train-privatization

President Javier Milei has started the procedure to fully privatize cargo train company Belgrano Cargas via a decree published in the Official Gazette on Monday. The privatization was announced in October.

Decree 60/2025 authorizes the privatization of the company through an unbundling process that separates out parts of the business and uses a mixture of mechanisms to transfer them to the private sector.

The trains themselves will be sold off at public auction and the proceeds placed in a trust to finance works on the railroad. Tracks and railway buildings will be allotted via a public works concession, through a national and international tender.

The decree also states that railroad workshops will be put to tender, guaranteeing their continued operation under private management. Unlike previous privatization processes, it does not contemplate preferential treatment for existing employees, nor employee shareholder schemes.

Once these procedures have been completed, the company will be dissolved.

The Economy Ministry will carry out the process, with the backing of the Public Company Transformation Agency.

On Saturday, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni wrote on X that, once the company had been sold and transferred to private hands, “the state will cease to operate railway cargo services and all its infrastructure: vehicles, tracks, workshops, and real estate.”

Belgrano Cargas is one of a group of eight state companies included in the government’s privatization plan after the Ley Bases was approved. Other companies were removed from the list during negotiations with the government’s allies and the opposition.

Key for grains transport

The company was created in June 2013, during the Cristina Kirchner government, with the goal of unifying the operation of Argentina’s three main cargo railways: the Belgrano, the San Martín and the General Urquiza. This rail network crosses 17 provinces in north-western and central Argentina, and plays a key role in transporting grains for export.

Adorni has previously said that over the past year, the company needed US$112 million in state financing to stay in operation. Despite this, “the average distance transported today is 500km, exactly the same as 50 years ago.” The government has also accused the company of inefficiency.

The privatization will be led by Diego Caher, head of the Public Company Transformation Agency. It is based on an “open-access infrastructure concession,” meaning that the concession holder will have to allow any operator who wants to transport cargo to use the tracks, in order to avoid monopolies.

The national government will continue to own the land and the tracks, while the remaining assets will be transferred to private management.