Port of Fray Bentos

Fray Bentos Port Latitude: 33º 06′ 38″S Longitude: 058º 18′ 54″W

The Port of Fray Bentos is located in the city of the same name, on the left bank of the Uruguay River, 317 km from Montevideo. It is 92 km from Nueva Palmira (starting point of the Parana – Paraguay Waterway) and is located 385 km from Montevideo via the Martin Garcia Channel or 560 km from Montevideo via the Parana Mitre Channel. Its privileged geographic location is further enhanced by the road accessibility of the area. Road accesses are through Route 2, to the south of the country, connected to route 24 and through this to routes 20 and 25, which are the backbone of the wood industry traffic. Two railway branches go through the forestry production zones, terminating at both docks. The port is near the international bridge Fray Bentos-Puerto Unzue, which is the shortest connection between Montevideo and Buenos Aires and facilitates cargo interconnections between Uruguay, the agricultural and industrial areas of Argentina’s coastal area, Chile to the west and Rio Grande Do Sul in Brazil to the east. The port of Fray Bentos is integrated with the fertile agricultural and cattle raising areas of the west river coast of Uruguay and has a flexible grain conveyor belt system with a loading capacity of 500 t/h and an unloading capacity of 120 t/h. It has two cement docks: the transatlantic or overseas dock, of 125 meters and a width of 43 meters, and a cabotage or linking dock with a length of 225 meters and a width of 22 meters, both firmly built on a foundation of cylindrical pillars, forming a 45° angle in the direction of the river. Its large size permits fast and convenient operations. The draft is approximately 9 meters alongside the overseas dock and 7 meters alongside the river dock. Maximum sailing draft – 20 00´´ FW/WOG. The port is located at the center of the river coastal region where the soil is classified as forestry priority, as established in the Forestry Plan. The main products that go through the port are citrus, round timber and grain (barley and corn). The transatlantic dock is used for citrus and round timber and the cabotage or linking dock for grain and citrus. The facilities of the Terminal Granera del Uruguay TGU (Grain Terminal of Uruguay) are located within the port enclosure and have a static capacity of 20,000 tons. There are also roughly 40,000 square meters of additional warehousing space.