Platetrade: twenty-five years with foreign trade

Only one of 450 companies founded in Argentina survives 25 years. Achieving such a milestone deserves recognition, even more so if the firm operates in an area as complex and volatile as international transportation and logistics. This is the case of the Platetrade group, with its own offices in Buenos Aires and branches in Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia. Over the years, Platetrade has focused primarily on project freight transportation, with specific know-how in door-to-door services. The recent acquisition of Fluvialmar, a national shipowner, with Argentine flag vessels, allows it to provide transportation between ports in the country, because the vessels adapt to the requirements imposed by the cabotage law. As an agent in Argentina and Uruguay, Platetrade obtains the best costs in proformas and stowage, in direct collaboration with the shipowner and with the entire logistics chain, to achieve better results in the comprehensive operation. The firm has ISO 9001:2015 certification from Bureau Veritas and is a member of BIMCO (The Baltic and International Maritime Council). As a member of the Worldwide Project Consortium (WWPC), a consortium with a presence in 90 countries that has been serving the project market for more than 15 years, Platetrade can handle key projects, based on door-to-door service. “The name Platetrade is synonymous with ‘simple solutions for complex loads’. We currently have the official representation of HongFa Shipping Shanghai for Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia. For four years we have had a regular service from China and Southeast Asia to Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, and we also offer transshipment service in Nueva Palmira and San Nicolas for all ports on the Paraná-Paraguay waterway. We transport general cargo, bagged and project loads, as well as rolling stock and forestry loads. The door-to-door service for waterway ports is also provided as a solution for recipient shippers, shipowners, and freight forwarders from the ports of Northern Europe, the Mediterranean Sea and the United States to the ports of Paraguay and Bolivia. Likewise, we have official representations of shipowners for traffic in Northern Europe, the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf. We call regularly in Zárate, Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, and in ports in Patagonia such as Punta Quilla, Comodoro Rivadavia and Puerto Madryn, Sebastian Zalaya, managing director of Platetrade, told Transport & Cargo. The manager expressed the pleasure of “collaborating regularly with world-renowned corporate accounts such as Techint, Tenaris, YPF, Ternium, Panamerican Energy and PCR, among others. On the other hand, we represent the Ashapura Trading group, a mining company of Indian origin for which we transport and market frac sand, barite, bauxite, limestone and gypsum. We also have the official representation of Sinoma Tianjin, a Chinese state conglomerate that is dedicated to the production of cement plants, engineering studies and EPC, and is one of the largest producers of cement and Clinker, products that we market in Argentina. We handle breakbulk loads, bagged loads (fracking sand, barite, ceramic proppants), project loads, wind power and industrial plants. With an eye toward the future, Platetrade envisions consolidating its presence in Argentine cabotage as a carrier of general and project cargo. Likewise, it aims to increase frequencies from all import origins to the ports of the Paraná-Paraguay waterway. “To achieve this objective we operate in strategic alliances with the main players in the sector. Within the trading area we are working to expand our company within the cement, frac sand market and marketing of other products. One of our main objectives is to advise importers and exporters in the area such as SMEs, so that they can control their own transportation instead of depending on the supplier or receiver respectively, highlighted Sebastian Zalaya.