The Syncrolift increased from 10% to 95% availability and can now accommodate vessels with a draft of up to 5.80 meters
In response to this deterioration, during 2025 the administration of Javier Milei carried out the technical and administrative planning of an intervention aimed at recovering the infrastructure without interrupting the shipyard's activity. After the preparation of the specifications, obtaining environmental permits, and the public bidding process, the work began in January 2026.
The state shipyard Tandanor has regained a strategic capacity for the Argentine naval industry after advancing with the first comprehensive intervention of the Syncrolift since its commissioning in 1979, a project driven by the current management that increased its operational availability from 10% to 95%.
The infrastructure, considered one of the main productive assets of the company, also managed to expand the maximum draft of the vessels it can receive from 4.10 to 5.80 meters, while once the work is completed, it is projected to achieve a 99.5% availability and operate with vessels of up to 6.20 meters draft.
The Syncrolift is 184 meters long and 32.90 meters wide, making it the largest system of its kind in the region and the second largest in the entire American continent. Its function allows it to lift vessels of up to 15,000 tons and subsequently move them via rails to four independent work slips.
For decades, the accumulation of sediments beneath the platform progressively reduced the available depth and severely limited its use. The situation had brought operational availability down to just 10%, equivalent to about 36 days per year for deep-draft vessels under normal conditions.
Since then, more than 23,000 cubic meters of accumulated sediments have already been removed from beneath the platform. The progress of the work has allowed availability to rise to 95% and recover a depth equivalent to a significant portion of the capacity lost over the last decades.
The improvement directly expands the universe of vessels that Tandanor can repair or build, reduces its dependence on tidal conditions, and allows it to compete for more complex contracts both in the Argentine market and internationally.
The president of Tandanor, Tomás Etcheverry, emphasized that the recovery will allow vessels that previously had restricted access to operate again in the facilities and assured that the improvement strengthens the competitive position of the shipyard.
