The tender to supply pipes to a 480-kilometer gas pipeline, intended to transport gas from Vaca Muerta to the port of San Antonio Oeste in Río Negro, generated a short circuit between the government of Javier Milei and the Techint Group, which threatened to file an antidumping complaint against the winning company and provoked an angry response from the ruling party.
It all started when Southern Energy, the consortium of energy firms in charge of the bidding process, opted for the proposal of the Indian company Welspun and discarded that of Tenaris, belonging to Techint, one of the largest producers of tubes globally.
The Argentine company announced that it would file an antidumping appeal against the winning firm, considering that it incurred unfair competition for using sheet metal from China in the manufacture of its products, which would give it the possibility of offering values below the usual market prices.As the days went by, the lawsuit took on a greater media and political dimension, but the complaint did not materialize and, for the moment, it remained a feint that generated a confrontation with the Government.
In fact, within the libertarian administration, which would have the responsibility of analyzing a possible complaint through the National Foreign Trade Commission (CNCE), they dismissed Techint’s claims.“We are going to pay more for the pipes,” a source linked to Milei’s environment told Infobae in recent days.
The%20minister%20of%20Deregulation%C3%B3n%20and%20Transformation%C3%B3n%20of%20State,%20Federico%20Sturzenegger,was%20the%20first%20referent%20of%20officialism%20in%20state%20against%20the%20stance%20ofTechint.%20A%20trav%C3%A9s%20of%20the%20red%20social%20X,%20plante%C3%B3%20que%20Tenaris%20%E2%80%9Cofreci%C3%B3%20los%20ca%C3%B1os%2040%m%C3%A1s%20caros%E2%80%9D,%20for%20what%20that,%20if%20was%20accepted%20that%20proposal%20for%20benefitsr%20to%20domestic market,%20would%20have%20spent%20m%C3%A1s%20and%20also%C3%A9n%20would havea%20tra%C3%ADdo%20consequences,%20ya%20which meant%20%E2%80%9Clower%20profitability%20of the%20project,%20lower%20investments,%20less%20employment,less%20exports%E2%80%9D.
And he added: “As the price of gas is fixed, perhaps we would have paid that higher cost with a higher price of energy for thousands of companies (including SMEs) and consumers. It is the Argentine cost that they tell you.”
Sturzenegger also rejected Techint’s request to access the first refusal mechanism and match Welspun’s proposal.He argued that granting this benefit would negatively impact future bidding processes, since the participants “would know that many offers they make would be useless because there will be a company that will be able to beat them after they present their price.”
“Not providing cheaper inputs would be a bad deal for companies and for the country. If we want to be competitive, we cannot impose labor inefficiencies (hello, labor modernization!), or extra costs on inputs. If we allow it, we will never break our decades of stagnation,” he concluded.
Later, the president himself addressed the issue by defending the opening of imports and questioned those who oppose the measure, suggesting that the criticism responds to particular interests.Later, Milei took aim directly at Paolo Rocca by criticizing those who come out “in defense of Don Chatarrín of the CAROS tubes…”, in direct allusion to the Techint manager.
The company avoided direct confrontation and announced that they are moving forward with the “technical documentation” for the presentation of the antidumping measure, despite the fact that complaints of this type are usually made relatively immediately and not so many days after the process has concluded.
Southern Energy received 15 offers from companies from Argentina, Spain, China, India, Colombia, Mexico, Japan, Greece and Turkey, among other countries.Of that group, six proposals were enabled by meeting the technical requirements.
Welspun was selected for presenting the most competitive offer, valued at USD 203 million, and for offering more flexible conditions in both payments and guarantees, factors considered key in a venture the size of a gas pipeline, where cost margins are usually tight.
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The%20development%20of%20tender%20process%20was%20also%C3%A9n%20marked%20by%20strict%20compliance%20of%20the%20deadlines,%20sec%C3%BAn%20described%20the%20responsible.%20The%20company%C3%B1%C3%ADa%20of origin%20Indian%20received%C3%B3%20the%20aaward%C3%B3n%20on%2023%20of%20December,%20after%C3%A9s%20of%20an%C3%A1lysis%20dall%20the%20proposals%20and%20by%20a%20vote%20a%C3%A1nime%20of%20the%20shareholders%20of%20SouthernEnergy:%20Pan%20American%20Energy%20(PAE)%20with%20the%2030%,%20the%20state%20oil company%20YPF%20with%20el25%,%20and%20the%20minority%20partners%20Pampa%20Energ%C3%ADa,%20Harbour%20Energy%20(United Kingdom)%20andGolar%20LNG%20(Norway).
The consortium indicated that Tenaris’ second offer was presented on December 24, outside the period scheduled for receiving proposals, when the bidding had already concluded and the award had been defined.On December 30, Southern Energy informed Tenaris that, despite the improvement, Welspun’s proposal was still the most suitable.
On January 6, fifteen days after the award and with the contract already signed, Tenaris presented a first refusal proposal to match the commercial conditions of the winning offer.The next day, the consortium again rejected Tenaris’s presentation, arguing that its offer was out of time and that accepting modifications in that instance would have violated the principle of equality between the participants.
