UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 20-F
(Amendment No. 2)
(Mark One)
¨ | REGISTRATION STATEMENT PURSUANT TO SECTION 12(b) OR (g) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
OR
x | ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2012
OR
¨ | TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
OR
¨ | SHELL COMPANY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
Date of event requiring shell company report
For the transition period from to
Commission file number
333-179250
Navios South American Logistics Inc.
(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)
Not Applicable
(Translation of Registrant’s Name into English)
Republic of Marshall Islands
(Jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)
Aguada Park Free Zone
Paraguay 2141, Of. 1603
Montevideo, Uruguay
(Address of principal executive offices)
Anna Kalathakis
85 Akti Miaouli
Piraeus 18538
Tel: +(30) 210 459 5000
Fax: +(30) 210 453 1984
(Name, Telephone, E-mail and/or Facsimile number and Address of Company Contact Person)
Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act. | None | |
Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act. | None | |
Securities for which there is a reporting obligation pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Act. | 9 1/4% Senior Notes due 2019 |
Indicate the number of outstanding shares of each of the issuer’s classes of capital or common stock as of the close of the period covered by the annual report:
There is no public market for the registrant’s common stock. There were 20,000 shares of the registrant’s, par $1.00 per share, issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2012
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ¨ No x
If this report is an annual or transition report, indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or (15)(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Yes ¨ No x
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter periods that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such reporting requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ¨ No x
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes x No ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, or a non-accelerated filer. See definition of “accelerated filer and large accelerated filer” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):
Large Accelerated Filer ¨ Accelerated Filer ¨ Non-Accelerated Filer x
Indicate by check mark which basis of accounting the registrant has used to prepare the financial statements included in this filing:
U.S. GAAP x | International Financial Reporting Standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board ¨ | Other ¨ |
If “Other” has been checked in response to the previous question, indicate by check mark which financial statement item the registrant has elected to follow. Item 17 ¨ Item 18 ¨
If this is an annual report, indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ¨ No x
Explanatory Note
This Amendment No. 2 (this “Amendment No. 2”) to the Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2012 of Navios South American Logistics Inc., which was originally filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on March 7, 2013 (the “Original Form 20-F”) and was amended on April 1, 2013 solely for the purpose of furnishing Interactive Data File disclosure (“Amendment No. 1”), is being filed solely for the purpose of providing additional disclosure, adding a subsection “Exchange Act Section 13(r) Activities” to the section “Environmental and Government Regulation” beginning on page 42 of the Original Report under Item 4.B., in response to certain comments from the staff of the SEC in connection with its review of the Original Report with regard to Section 219 of the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012 which added Section 13(r) to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
Other than as expressly set forth above with respect to Item 4.B., adding subsection “Exchange Act Section 13(r) Activities”, no other information in Item 4.B. has been updated and this Amendment No. 2 does not, and does not purport to, amend, update or restate the information in any other item of the Original Form 20-F, as amended by Amendment No. 1, or reflect any events that have occurred after the Original Form 20-F was initially filed.
Item 4. | Information on the Company |
B. | Business Overview |
Our Company
We are one of the largest logistics companies in the Hidrovia region of South America, focusing on the Hidrovia region river system, the main navigable river system in the region, and on the cabotage trades along the eastern coast of South America. We are focused on providing our customers integrated transportation, storage and related services through our port facilities, our large, versatile fleet of dry and liquid cargo barges and our product tankers. We serve the needs of a number of growing South American industries, including mineral and grain commodity providers as well as users of refined petroleum products. Our controlling shareholder, Navios Holdings, is one of the world’s leading shipping and maritime logistics companies and provides significant business expertise and know-how to our operations.
We report our operations based on three reportable segments: Port Terminal Business, Barge Business and Cabotage Business. For further historical segment information, please see Note 22 to our audited Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this report.
We have a diverse customer base including global agricultural, mining and petroleum companies. Our customers include affiliates of ADM, Axion Energy (formerly known as Esso), Bunge, Cargill, Glencore, Louis Dreyfus, Petrobras, Petropar (the national oil company of Paraguay), Shell, Vale, Vitol and YPF. We have a long history of operating in the Hidrovia region, being founded in 1955 by one of our predecessor companies which operated in the region, and have been able to generate and maintain longstanding relationships with our customers. In our dry port facility in Uruguay, we have been serving three of our key global customers, ADM, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus, for more than 14 years on average. In our liquid port facility, liquid barge transportation and cabotage business, we have long-term relationships with our global petroleum customers for more than 10 years on average (such as Axion Energy, Petrobras Group, YPF and Shell). In our dry barge business, we started our relationship with Vale in 2008 for iron ore transportation and have signed new contracts since then. We are committed to providing quality logistics services for our customers and further developing and maintaining our long-term relationships.
We serve our customers in the Hidrovia region through our two port storage and transfer facilities, one for agricultural, forest and mineral-related exports located in Uruguay and the other for refined petroleum products located in Paraguay. We complement our two port terminals with a diverse fleet of 287 barges and pushboats and two small inland oil tankers that operate in our barge business and eight vessels, including six oceangoing tankers and two self-propelled barges, which operate in our cabotage business. We provide transportation for dry cargo (cereals, cotton pellets, soybeans, wheat, limestone (clinker), mineral iron, and rolling stones) and liquid cargo (hydrocarbons such as crude oil, gas oil, naphtha, fuel oil and vegetable oils) and liquefied cargo (liquefied petroleum gas or LPG).
Since the business combination in January 2008, we have grown our vessel fleet from 123 to 297 vessels, including barges, pushboats and tankers, of which 289 are owned by us and eight are chartered-in. The following is the current core fleet as of March 6, 2013.
Navios Logistics Fleet Summary (owned and chartered-in)
Pushboats/ Barges/ Inland Oil Tankers Fleet | Number of Vessels | Capacity/BHP | Description | |||||
Pushboat fleet (1) | 22 | 66,600 BHP | Various Sizes and Horse Power | |||||
Dry Barges | 223 | 311,000 DWT | Dry Cargo | |||||
Tank Barges (2)(3) | 39 | 122,449 m3 | Liquid Cargo | |||||
LPG Barges | 3 | 4,752 m3 | LPG | |||||
Self-propelled Tank Barges (4) | 2 | 11,600 m3 | Liquid Cargo | |||||
Inland Oil Tankers | 2 | 3,900 DWT | Liquid Cargo | |||||
|
| |||||||
Total | 291 | |||||||
|
|
1
Product Tanker Fleet | Year Built | DWT | Description | |||||
Estefania H | 2008 | 12,000 | Double-hulled Product Tanker | |||||
Malva H | 2008 | 8,974 | Double-hulled Product Tanker | |||||
Makenita H | 2009 | 17,508 | Double-hulled Product Tanker | |||||
Sara H | 2009 | 9,000 | Double-hulled Product Tanker | |||||
San San H (5) | 2010 | 16,871 | Double-hulled Product Tanker | |||||
Stavroula (5) | 2010 | 16,871 | Double-hulled Product Tanker | |||||
|
| |||||||
Total | 81,224 | |||||||
|
|
(1) | One pushboat is chartered-in with a horsepower of 580 BHP. |
(2) | Seven tank barges are chartered-in with total capacity of 16,040 m3. |
(3) | Two tank barges are currently under construction and are expected to be delivered at the end of March and June 2013, respectively. |
(4) | Serving in the Argentine cabotage business. |
(5) | Both tankers are chartered-in for a six-year period, and we have the obligation to purchase the vessels immediately upon the expiration of the respective charter periods at a purchase price of $9.9 million and $9.8 million, respectively. |
Port Terminal Operations
Uruguay Dry Port
We believe we own and operate the largest independent bulk transfer and storage port terminal in Uruguay based on throughputs. In 2011 and 2012, 3.7 million and 4.0 million tons of dry cargo, respectively, were moved through our dry port terminal and we currently have nine silos (some with internal separations) with total storage capacity of 460,000 tons. In our dry port terminal, we have been serving our three key global customers for more than 14 years on average.
We have a free zone user agreement with the Republic of Uruguay dating back to the 1950s for the land on which we operate. The agreement has been extended to 2025 and may be extended further until 2045 at our option. We believe the terms of the agreement reflect our favorable relationship with the Republic of Uruguay. Additionally, since our terminal is located in the Nueva Palmira Free Zone, foreign commodities moving through the terminal are free of Uruguayan taxes.
We believe that countries in the region will continue to increase use of land for agriculture and implement technology for increasing yields on productive lands. As a result, we have experienced significant growth in the last ten years from 1.0 million tons moved in 2000 to 4.0 million tons in 2012. We have also been expanding our capacity from 280,000 tons in 2009 to 460,000 tons as of December 31, 2012. We installed a grain drying and conditioning facility on 13.6 acres of land adjacent to our dry port terminal, which has been operational since May 16, 2011. This facility, with 7,000 metric tons in static storage capacity, is focused primarily on Uruguayan soy for export and is expected to serve the needs of our clients for grain products that meet the quality standards required by international buyers. We believe the addition of this facility to our existing operations could save customers expense and time by reducing the need to transport their goods from other drying and conditioning facilities to our port. In addition, we are currently constructing an additional vessel loading conveyor belt at our dry port facility expected to be operational in the third quarter of 2013. We are also currently negotiating contracts with existing and new customers relating to the Uruguayan grain market.
We believe there is significant potential for further expansion of this bulk terminal operation. In 2009, we were awarded an additional 15 acres of land under our free zone user agreement. We are actively looking for additional land to expand our operations. During the third and fourth quarter of 2010, we acquired two 29 acre parcels of land located south of the Nueva Palmira Free Zone as part of a project to develop a new transshipment facility for mineral ores and liquid bulks. In September 2011, we acquired an additional parcel of land of approximately 23 acres as part of this project. Our total available land for expansion is 80 acres.
2
Port Operation:The commodities most frequently handled include grain and grain products, as well as some ores and sugar. Our port terminal receives bulk cargoes from barges, trucks, and vessels, and either transfers them directly to drybulk carriers or stores them in our modern silos for later shipment. The port terminal operates 24 hours per day, seven days per week, to provide barge and ship traffic with safe and fast turnarounds. Multiple operations may be conducted simultaneously at the port terminal, including cargoes from oceangoing vessels, barges, trucks and grain silos. The port terminal uses a fixed fee structure for customers.
Port Infrastructure:The port terminal is unique in the region because of its sophisticated design, efficiency and multimodal operations. Our dry port terminal has specially designed storage facilities and conveying systems that provide significant flexibility in cargo movements aimed at avoiding delays to trucks, vessels and barge convoys. The port terminal currently offers 460,000 tons (soybean basis) of clean and secure grain silo capacity. With nine silos (some with internal separations) available for storage, our facility provides customers storage for their commodities separate from those of other customers. The port terminal has the latest generation, high precision, independent weigh scales, both for discharging and loading activity.
The port terminal has two docks. The main outer dock is 240 meters long and accommodates vessels of up to 85,000 dwt loading to the maximum draft permitted for vessels at the Martin Garcia Bar and Mitre Canal. The dock has three modern ship loaders capable of loading vessels at rates of up to 20,000 tons per day, depending on the type of commodity. The inner face of this dock is equipped for discharging barge convoys. The secondary inner dock is 170 meters long and is dedicated to the discharge of barge convoys, which is carried out on both sides of the dock. The terminal is capable of discharging barge convoys at rates averaging 10,000 to 14,000 tons per day, depending on the type of barges and commodity. Each dock has fixed-duty cycle cranes to discharge barge convoys. In addition, discharging at our facility is optimized through the use of commodity-appropriate bucket size and type.
Paraguay Liquid Port
We own and operate an up-river port terminal with tank storage for refined petroleum products, oil and gas in San Antonio, Paraguay, approximately 17 miles by river from the capital of Asuncion. We believe our port terminal is one of the largest independent storage facilities for crude and petroleum products in Paraguay based on storage capacity. Our port terminal has a current capacity of 45,660 cubic meters. The port facility serves international operators from Paraguay and Bolivia supplying products that support the growing demand for energy. Because Paraguay is not an oil producing country, its needs for both crude and refined petroleum products are served entirely by imports. The main sources of supply are from Argentina and, to a much lesser extent, Bolivia. Demand for diesel in the country varies between 80,000 cubic meters and 100,000 cubic meters per month, and the demand for naphtha varies between 20,000 cubic meters and 30,000 cubic meters per month. We believe that the port’s location south of the city of Asuncion, the depth of the river in the area and the convergence between land and river transportation make this port well-positioned to become a hub for industrial development. The strategic location of the terminal at the center of the Paraguay-Parana waterway has comparative advantages for the provision of services to both southern and northern regions.
The port terminal was built to carry out terminal operations efficiently, including the loading and unloading of ships and trucks with fuels, storage tanks and subsequent clearance for vessels and trucks. The business is carried out through the purchase and sale of refined petroleum products and the storage, handling or transportation services that relate to liquid and gas products. We own tanks approved by the Paraguayan National Customs Office, which gives us a competitive advantage over other suppliers dedicated to the field.
Port Operation:The port provides short- and long-term storage services for liquid cargo, as well as the sale of liquid products.
Port Infrastructure:Currently, the port has 10 major tanks in operation with a capacity of 45,660 cubic meters. The plates are carbon steel, as specified by the American Standard for Testing Materials, and the construction was performed according to the standards of the American Petroleum Institute. Our goal is to have a capacity of 90,000 to 100,000 cubic meters of storage at the terminal to meet our customers’ increasing demand.
The pier is a structure of reinforced concrete built on stilts, beams and slabs. It is 45 meters long and 4.5 meters wide, and includes two platforms, each with 148 square meters of surface area. One of the platforms, used for operation during peak business times, has a height of 9.05 meters. The second platform is used during less busy periods and has a height of 5.0 meters.
The port has an area for truck operations with a reinforced concrete floor and metal roof mounted on trusses and steel columns profiles. There are three platforms, one for liquid fuels, another for LPG and a platform to discharge trucks with alcohol and other refined petroleum products.
3
Barge Operations
Overview:We service the Argentine, Bolivian, Brazilian, Paraguayan and Uruguayan river transportation markets through our fleet of 289 vessels in our barge business. We operate different types of pushboats and wet and dry barges for delivering a wide range of dry and liquid products between ports in the Parana, Paraguay and Uruguay River systems in South America (the Hidrovia or the “waterway”). We typically contract our vessels either on a time charter basis or on a CoA basis.
Fleet:We own or operate 289 vessels in our barge business, including 22 pushboats, 223 dry barges, 39 tank barges, three LPG barges and two small inland oil tankers. We have grown our fleet quickly following our business combination in January 2008. Our dry barge fleet is nearly three times the size it was in January 2008.
Products Transported:We transport liquid cargo (hydrocarbons such as crude oil, gas oil, naphtha, fuel oil and vegetable oils), liquefied cargo (liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)) and dry cargo (cereals, cotton pellets, soy bean, wheat, limestone (clinker), mineral iron and rolling stones). During 2012, we transported approximately 1.8 million cubic meters of liquids or tons of dry cargo (compared to 2.2 million cubic meters in 2011, 1.8 million cubic meters in 2010, and 1.7 million cubic meters in 2009), consisting of approximately 0.8 million cubic meters of liquids, more than 1.0 million tons of dry cargo, and approximately 5,800 cubic meters of LPG.
Cabotage Operations
Overview:Our cabotage operations serve oil majors and major trading companies in the region to transport petroleum products from the refineries to various coastal destinations. The Argentine cabotage market is restricted to established local operators with either Argentine flagged vessels or foreign flagged vessels with one-to-three year licenses for companies with sufficient Argentine tonnage. Our foreign-flagged cabotage tanker vessels operate under licenses of one to three years’ duration issued by the Argentinean maritime authorities. We have the competitive advantage of being able to operate in the Brazilian cabotage market through a Brazilian pushboat operator, Hidronave S.A., since Brazilian law provides a preference for the utilization of Brazilian-flagged vessels in its cabotage trade.
Our fleet consists of six oceangoing product tanker vessels and two self propelled barges. Since December 2007, we have grown our cabotage fleet. We acquired two product tanker vessels, the Estefania H and the Makenita H, which were delivered in July 2008 and June 2009, respectively, with an aggregate capacity of 29,508 dwt. In February 2010, we took delivery of the Sara H, a 9,000 dwt double hull product oil tanker, which is chartered out for three years beginning as of April 2010. In June 2010, we entered into long-term bareboat agreements for two new product tankers, the Stavroula and the San San H, each with a capacity of 16,871 dwt. The San San H and the Stavroula were delivered in June and July 2010, respectively. Both tankers are chartered-in for a six-year period, and we have the obligation to purchase the vessels immediately upon the expiration of the respective charter periods at a purchase price of $9.9 million and $9.8 million, respectively. We typically contract our vessels either on a time charter basis or on a CoA basis.
On October 29, 2009, we acquired 51% of the outstanding share capital of Hidronave S.A., a Brazilian company, and took delivery of the Nazira, a pushboat specially prepared for navigating in Brazilian waters. Hidronave S.A. has the certificates and other documentation required to conduct business in Brazil. This acquisition serves as a platform to enable us to build our Brazilian cabotage business if we choose to do so. For example, in May 2011 we signed 15-year charter contracts with Petrobras for six Panamax vessels, which will further expand our cabotage business. We have the option to cancel the contracts if we are unable to secure acceptable financing for the construction of the vessels.
Fleet:The table below reflects our cabotage tanker fleet as of March 6, 2013.
Vessel | Type | Built | DWT | Employment Date | Charter-Out Duration | Counterparties | Expiration Date of License | |||||||||||
Malva H | Product Tanker | 2007 | 8,974 | January 1, 2013 | 8 months | Cammesa | November 22, 2013 | |||||||||||
Estefania H | Product Tanker | 2008 | 12,000 | October1, 2012 | 11 months | Cammesa | May 6, 2013 | |||||||||||
Makenita H | Product Tanker | 2009 | 17,508 | November 1, 2012 | 12 months | YPF | June 24, 2015 | |||||||||||
Sara H | Product Tanker | 2010 | 9,000 | April 15, 2010 | 3 years plus 3 optional years | Axion (2) Energy | March 27, 2013 | |||||||||||
Stavroula (1) | Product Tanker | 2010 | 16,871 | December 31, 2010 | 3 years plus option to terminate the contract at second year | YPF | June 30, 2015 | |||||||||||
San San H (f/k/a Jiujiang) (1) | Product Tanker | 2010 | 16,871 | February 1, 2013 | 8 months | Cammesa | December 31, 2014 |
(1) | Both tankers are chartered-in for a six-year period, and we have the obligation to purchase the vessels immediately upon the expiration of the respective charter periods at a purchase price of $9.9 million and $9.8 million, respectively. Our foreign- |
4
flagged cabotage tanker vessels operate under licenses of one to three years’ duration issued by the Argentinean maritime authorities. Such licenses for our vessels expire at various times until June 2015. Upon expiration, the licenses are generally renewed for periods of one to three years. While renewal is pending, the vessels operate under provisional licenses of two to three months’ duration which are re-issued until the longer-term license is obtained. |
(2) | Former Esso. |
Products Transported:We transport liquid cargo (hydrocarbons such as crude oil, gas oil, naphtha, fuel oil and vegetable oils). During 2012, our cabotage fleet transported more than 2.1 million cubic meters of liquids (compared to 2.4 million cubic meters in 2011 and 2.3 million cubic meters in 2010).
Competitive Strengths
We believe that the following strengths allow us to maintain a competitive advantage within the markets we serve.
Leading Integrated Logistics Company in the Hidrovia Region Serving Diversified End Markets.We believe we own and operate the largest independent bulk transfer and storage port terminal in Uruguay based on throughputs and one of the largest independent storage facilities for crude and petroleum products in Paraguay based on storage capacity. We believe we also are one of the largest owners and operators of a diverse and versatile fleet of dry and wet barges, pushboats and oil tankers in the Hidrovia region. Our port, barge and cabotage operations serve the needs of a diverse range of industries, including mineral and grain commodity providers as well as users of refined petroleum products. We have been able to combine our ports, barges, pushboats and tankers to offer an integrated logistics solution to our customers. For example, we have customers that use both our dry port and dry barge services such as ADM and Vicentin, and other customers that use our liquid port, liquid barge and cabotage services such as Petrobras and Axion Energy.
Developing Leading Position Through Investment and Expansion in our Port Terminals.Our dry port facility has served the growing grain exports of countries in the Hidrovia region since 1955 and its location at Nueva Palmira serves our customers’ export needs by providing easy access to the Atlantic Ocean. We have completed the construction of a new silo with a capacity of 100,000 metric tons to meet customer demand, which brings the terminal’s total capacity to 460,000 metric tons as of April 2012. We believe that our storage and port handling services complemented by the drying and conditioning facility that has been operational since May 2011 provides our customers with significant savings by reducing costly and time-consuming transportation. We believe that the 80 acres of total available land, following our recent purchases and active investigation of other prospective land acquisitions provide us with significant potential for further expansion at our dry port terminal, including the development of a new transshipment facility for wet and dry commodities. Our crude and petroleum product port and storage facility in Paraguay is located at the convergence of land and river transportation in an area we believe will become an industrial hub. Our facility’s 45,660 cubic meters of storage, serve the needs of our customers in Paraguay, a country with no crude production and limited refining capacity, and in the Hidrovia region.
Large Scale and Modern Fleet Drive Efficient Operations.We believe we are one of the largest providers of storage and marine transportation services in the Hidrovia region, which gives us economies of scale and increased negotiating power. As a fully integrated operator with in-house technical and commercial management of our fleet, we are able to control costs and increase savings across our vertically integrated business lines. We closely monitor operating expenses and continuously undertake cost-cutting initiatives such as the adoption of best practices and the utilization of process improvement teams. In addition, the use of modern vessels in our cabotage operations permits us to use advanced technology and a computerized navigational system that allows for efficient maneuverability and decreased fuel consumption for our vessels.
We believe we have high fleet utilization due to our modern cabotage fleet. Our cabotage fleet of six double-hulled product tankers is one of the youngest in Argentina with an average age of approximately four years. Younger vessels typically have greater flexibility in their employment and less maintenance time is needed to operate such vessels. Our cabotage fleet utilization rate for the years ended December 31, 2011 and 2012 was 83.5% and 79.3%, respectively.
We also seek to optimize the use of pushboats. For example, we use some of our pushboats as part of convoys which are mixed to include both liquid and dry barges. Since most liquid products are transported upriver and most dry products are transported downriver in the region, the use of these mixed convoys allows us to use our pushboats efficiently and limit the incurrence of additional costs related to the repositioning of our barges along the river system.
Preferential Treatment in Certain Markets.Most countries provide preferential treatment, referred to as “cabotage privileges,” for vessels that are flagged in their jurisdiction or chartered in for operation by local ship operators. All of our oceangoing vessels enjoy cabotage privileges in Argentina. In addition, Brazilian law provides a preference for the utilization of Brazilian-flagged vessels in its cabotage trade. Our Brazilian subsidiary, gives us the competitive advantage of being able to operate in the Brazilian cabotage market, enabling us to obtain employment in preference to vessels without those cabotage privileges. Furthermore, the countries of the Hidrovia region have established a regional cabotage system in which we participate.
5
Long-Term Relationships with High Quality Customers.We have a long history of operating in the Hidrovia region of South America. CNSA was founded by one of our predecessor companies in 1955. Horamar was formed in 1992, and was combined with CNSA in January 2008 to form Navios Logistics. We have long-standing relationships with a diverse group of large customers, primarily comprised of major international agriculture and oil companies and their affiliates such as ADM, Cargill, Louis Dreyfus, Petrobras, Petropar, YPF, Shell and Vale. These long term customer relationships arise from our reputation for reliability and high-quality service. In our dry port facility in Uruguay, we have been serving three of our key global customers, ADM, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus, for more than 14 years on average. In our liquid port facility, liquid barge transportation and cabotage business, we have long term relationships with our global petroleum customers for more than 10 years on average. In our barge business, we started our relationship with Vale in 2008 for iron ore transportation and have signed new contracts since then.
Track Record of High Standards of Performance and Safety.Our in-house technical ship management services are provided in accordance with the highest standard in the industry established by class societies, the IMO and the OCIMF and have been vetted by the oil majors. The quality of our fleet, as well as the expertise of our fleet managers, crews and engineering resources, helps us maintain safe, reliable and consistent performance. We maintain well documented and internationally certified safety and quality management systems, perform periodic audits and conduct training, each of which affects all areas of our activities, including operations, maintenance and crewing.
Established History and Experienced Management Team.We have operated in the Hidrovia region for more than 50 years and have an experienced management team, led by our Chief Executive Officer Claudio Pablo Lopez. Mr. Lopez and his family members have collectively been involved in the logistics industry in the region since 1976. Our directors and senior executive officers have, on average approximately 20 years of experience in the logistics and transportation industries. Our management team has significant expertise in various lines of businesses and has been instrumental in developing and maintaining our certified safety, quality management systems and executing our growth plan. Our management has driven significant growth in time charter, voyage and port terminal revenues and sales of products.
Business Strategy
Our business strategy is to continue to operate as a diversified logistics and port terminals company and to maximize our growth and profitability while limiting our exposure to the cyclical behavior of individual sectors of the logistics industry. We intend to leverage our expertise and strong customer relationships to increase volume, efficiency and market share in a targeted manner. We will continue to build upon our reputation in the logistics and port terminals industry by pursuing the following strategies:
Capitalize on Attractive Fundamentals in Our Businesses.As one of the largest owners and operators of barges and product tankers in the Hidrovia region, with some of the largest, most modern and strategically located port facilities, we believe we are well positioned to capitalize on the attractive fundamentals for storage and marine transportation services in the region. There currently exists a shortage of adequate rail and highway infrastructure in South America to meet the growing demand for exports, and the Hidrovia river system and coastal trade represent some of the more cost-efficient methods of transportation in the region. The Hidrovia river system is one of the largest navigable river systems in the world, comparable in length to the Mississippi River system in the United States. A comparison of the two river systems illustrates the significant potential for future development of the Hidrovia which serves economies that are expected to grow faster than the U.S. economy. For example, in 2013, Brazil is expected to grow by 3.5% and Argentina by 3.1%, according to the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook. Advanced economies, including the United States, are expected to grow 1.4% in 2013 according to the same source. If such growth in the Hidrovia Region economies does not materialize, it could materially delay or prevent the Hidrovia Region from realizing its potential.
6
We plan to use our position as a market leader in the Hidrovia region to grow our businesses to take advantage of this opportunity. We regularly review opportunities to invest in new port facilities and other infrastructure and increase the size and capacity of our barge fleet. For example, we are developing a new transshipment facility for mineral ores and liquid bulks in Nueva Palmira. We also plan on incorporating additional chemical/product tankers into our cabotage fleet. We believe that these tankers will serve a demand for vessels from our existing customers to service routes where both the point of origin and destination are in South America. We may also seek to add capacity by acquiring assets or companies currently operating in the Hidrovia region, and may add businesses and services that we believe are complementary to those we currently offer. We may also enter into joint venture arrangements with third parties with respect to these businesses.
Continue to Optimize Our Chartering Strategy.We continually monitor developments in the logistics industry and make charter-related decisions based on an individual vessel and segment basis, as well as on our view of overall market conditions in order to implement our overall business strategy. Some of our charters provide fixed pricing, minimum volume requirements and fuel price adjustment formulas. On other occasions, we enter into CoAs, which allow us flexibility in transporting a certain cargo to its destination. We have been working with our customers in our barge business to increase the proportion of our business under time charters and CoAs of one to five years’ duration, some of which have minimum volume guarantees. Furthermore, we intend to develop relationships with new customers and cargoes as we grow our fleet capacity.
Generating Operational Efficiencies.We have identified opportunities and are implementing our plans to improve overall efficiency and profitability. For example, in our barge business, we plan to increase the size and capacity of our barge fleet and invest in new engines that burn less expensive fuel for our line pushboats, which we use on our longer river voyages. We will also continue to focus on optimizing our barge and tug scheduling, maximizing loads and convoy size and minimizing empty return voyages.
Continue to Improve Quality.We have developed a reputation for having quality operations in the storage and marine transportation industry. We have implemented a quality improvement process to identify customer requirements and maintain processes designed to meet those requirements. We seek to involve the entire workforce to continually improve these processes on an ongoing basis. Our emphasis on quality allows us to provide customer service at a competitive price. Our reputation enhances our ability to successfully secure valuable contracts and has allowed us to build strong relationships with our customers.
Continue to Capitalize on Our Relationship with Navios Holdings.Navios Holdings has developed considerable experience and a global network of relationships during its 55-year history of investing and operating in the maritime industry. We believe our relationship with Navios Holdings, including our ability to leverage Navios Holdings’ global network of relationships, and its relationships with commercial and other banks will enable us to engage in innovative financing and access debt financing on favorable terms, as evidenced by our existing Credit Facility.
We also believe that we benefit from the leading risk management practices adopted by Navios Holdings. Navios Holdings closely monitors its counterparties’ credit exposure. Navios Holdings has established policies designed for contracts to be entered into with counterparties that have appropriate credit history and we have access to Navios Holdings’ policies and personnel for this purpose. We believe that we can use our relationship with Navios Holdings and its established reputation in order to obtain favorable long-term time contracts and attract new customers. If our relationship with Navios Holdings ends or is significantly altered, our business, results of operations and financial position could be materially adversely affected. See “Item 3.D Risk Factors—Risks Relating to Our Industry and Our Business—We have a meaningful relationship with Navios Holdings, and we depend on Navios Holdings for certain legal, advisory, administrative and other services and benefit from its global network to obtain competitive financing. If our relationship with Navios Holdings ended or was significantly altered, our business and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.”
Seasonality
Certain of our businesses have seasonality aspects and seasonality affects the results of our operations and revenues, particularly in the first and last quarters of each year. Generally, the high season for the barge business is the period between February and July, as a result of the South American harvest and higher river levels. Expected growth in soybean and mineral production and transportation may offset part of this seasonality. During the South American late spring and summer, mainly from November to January, the low level of water in the northern Hidrovia could adversely affect our operations as the water level is not high enough to accommodate the draft of a heavily laden vessel. Such low levels also adversely impact our ability to employ convoys as the water level towards the banks of the river may be too low to permit vessel traffic even if the middle of the river is deep enough to permit passage. With respect to our dry port terminal operations in Uruguay, high season is mainly from April to September, linked with the arrival of the first barges down-river and with the oceangoing vessels logistics operations. The port terminal operations in Paraguay and our cabotage business are not significantly affected by seasonality because the operations of the port and our cabotage business are primarily linked to refined petroleum products.
7
Customers
In each of our businesses, we derive a significant part of our revenues from a small number of customers. For the year ended December 31, 2012, our three largest customers, Vale, YPF and Axion Energy (formerly known as Esso), accounted for 18.5%, 11.5% and 11.5% of our revenues, respectively and our five largest customers accounted for approximately 56.4%. Other than our three largest customers, no other customer accounted for more than 10% of our revenues during the year ended December 31, 2012. For the year ended December 31, 2011, three customers, Petrobras, Petropar and Esso, accounted for 18.1%, 10.2% and 10.0% of our revenues, respectively. For the year ended December 31, 2010, one customer, Petrobras accounted for 17.5% of our revenues.
Our Fleet Management
We conduct all daily technical and commercial management for our owned fleet in-house and we commercially manage our chartered-in fleet. These services, as well as administration of our fleet, are provided from several offices situated in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil. We will continue to undertake all technical and commercial management for our barges and pushboats and vessels, including the purchasing of supplies, spare parts and husbandry items, crewing, superintendence and preparation and payment of all related accounts on our behalf.
Specifically, we provide, through our subsidiary, Compania Naviera Horamar S.A., technical ship management services to our owned vessels. These services are provided in accordance with highest standard in the industry established by class societies, the IMO, OCIMF and the oil majors vetting. Based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, this operation is run by experienced professionals who oversee every step of technical management, from the construction of the fleet elements in Argentina, Brazil, the United States and China to subsequent shipping operations throughout the life of a vessel, including the oversight of maintenance, repairs and drydocking. Mercopar S.A., our subsidiary, provides full technical services in Asuncion, Paraguay, for all the convoys operating up to Corumba, Brazil.
Chartering Arrangements
We continually monitor developments in the shipping industry and make decisions based on an individual vessel and segment basis, as well as on our view of overall market conditions in order to implement our overall business strategy. In our barge business, we typically operate under a mix of time charters and CoAs with durations of one to five years, some of which have minimum guaranteed volumes, and spot contracts. In our cabotage business, we typically operate under time charters with durations in excess of one year at inception. Some of our charters provide fixed pricing, labor cost, minimum volume requirements and fuel price adjustment formulas. On other occasions, we engage in CoAs, which allow us flexibility in transporting a certain cargo to its destination.
Employees and Crewing
We crew our fleet with Argentine, Brazilian and Paraguayan officers and seamen. Our fleet managers are responsible for selecting the crew.
As of December 31, 2012, we employed 367 land-based employees: 43 employees in the Asuncion, Paraguay office, 48 employees at the port facility in San Antonio, Paraguay, 123 employees in the Buenos Aires, Argentina office, six employees in the Montevideo, Uruguay office, 135 employees at the port facility in Nueva Palmira, Uruguay, and 12 employees at Hidronave S.A.’s Corumba, Brazil office.
Certain of our operations in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil are unionized. We believe that we have good relations with our employees and seamen and since our inception we have had no history of work stoppages.
Competition
We are one of the largest logistics providers in the region. We believe our ownership of river ports, including our port terminal in Uruguay that provides access to the ocean, allows us to offer a logistics solution superior to our competitors that also operate barges and pushboats. We also compete based on reliability, efficiency and price.
With respect to loading, storage and ancillary services, the market is divided between transits and exports, depending on the cargo origin. In the case of transits there are other companies operating in the river system that are able to offer services similar to ours. However, most of these companies are proprietary service providers that are focused on servicing their own cargo. Unlike these companies, we are an independent service provider in the market for transits. With respect to exports, our competitors are Montevideo Port in Montevideo and Ontur in Nueva Palmira, neither of which has storage, and TGU in Nueva Palmira. The main competitor of our liquid port terminal in Paraguay is Petropar, a Paraguayan state-owned entity. Other competitors include Copetrol and Petrobras, which are also customers of our port.
8
We face competition in our barge and cabotage businesses with transportation of oil and refined petroleum products from other independent ship owners and from vessel operators who primarily charter vessels to meet their cargo carrying needs. The charter markets in which our vessels compete are highly competitive. Key competitors include Ultrapetrol Bahamas Ltd. and Fluviomar. In addition, some of our customers, including ADM, Cargill, Louis Dreyfus and Vale, have some of their own dedicated barge capacity, which they can use to transport cargo in lieu of hiring a third party. We also compete indirectly with other forms of land-based transportation such as truck and rail. Competition is primarily based on prevailing market contract rates, vessel location and vessel manager know-how, reputation and credibility. These companies and other smaller entities are regular competitors of ours in our primary tanker trading areas.
We believe that our ability to combine our ports in Uruguay and Paraguay with our versatile fleet of barges, pushboats and tankers to offer integrated, end-to-end logistics solutions for both our dry and liquid customers seeking to transport mineral and grain commodities and liquid cargoes through the Hidrovia region has allowed us to differentiate our business and offer superior services compared to our competitors.
Corporate Information
Our legal and commercial name is Navios South American Logistics Inc. We have been incorporated under the laws of the Republic of the Marshall Islands since December 17, 2007. Our office and principal place of business is located at Aguada Park Free Zone, Paraguay 2141, Of. 1603 Montevideo, Uruguay and our telephone number is +(30) (210) 459-5000. Our website is http://www.navios-logistics.com. The information on our website is not incorporated by reference into this report and should not be considered to be a part of this report. Trust Company of the Marshall Islands, Inc. serves as our agent for service of process, and our registered address and telephone number of its agent for service of process is Trust Company Complex, Ajeltake Island, P.O. Box 1405, Majuro, Marshall Islands MH96960. We maintain offices in Montevideo, Uruguay, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Asuncion, Paraguay, and Corumba, Brazil. We own the Nueva Palmira port and transfer facility indirectly through our Uruguayan subsidiary, CNSA, and the San Antonio port facility through our Paraguayan subsidiary, Petrolera San Antonio S.A. (“Petrosan”). All of our subsidiaries are wholly owned, except for Hidronave S.A.
Environmental and Government Regulation
Government regulations relating to the environment, health or safety significantly affect our operations, including the ownership and operation of our vessels and our port facilities. Our operations are subject to international conventions, national, state and local laws, and regulations in force in international waters and the jurisdictional waters of the countries in which our vessels may operate or are registered. The legal requirements affecting our operations include, but are not limited to, the IMO International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, the IMO International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage of 1969, and its protocols of 1976, 1984, and 1992, the IMO International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage, 2001, the IMO International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea and the International Convention on Load Lines of 1966. We must also comply with legal requirements relating to the management and disposal of hazardous materials and wastes, air emissions, wastewater discharges, the management of ballast waters, maintenance and inspection, and development and implementation of emergency procedures. In addition, vessel classification societies impose safety and other requirements with respect to our vessels. Compliance with these requirements entails significant expense, including vessel modifications and implementation of certain operating procedures. Violations of such requirements can result in substantial penalties, and in certain instances, seizure or detention of our vessels.
International treaties and conventions, as well as national and local laws, can subject us to material liabilities in the event that there is a release of oil or other regulated substances from our vessels or at our port operations. We could also become subject to personal injury or property damage claims relating to exposure to, or releases of, regulated substances associated with our current or historic operations. In addition, we are subject to insurance or other financial assurance requirements relating to oil spills and other pollution incidents and are in material compliance with these requirements.
A variety of governmental and private entities, each of which may have unique requirements, subject our vessels and port terminals to both scheduled and unscheduled inspections. These entities include the local port authorities (harbor master or equivalent), port state controls, classification societies, flag state administration (country of registry) and charterers, particularly terminal operators. Our port terminals are subject to inspections by Hidrografía and the Free Zone Authority in Uruguay and the Environmental Secretary in Paraguay. Certain of these entities require us to obtain permits, licenses and certificates for the operation of our vessels and port facilities. Failure to maintain necessary permits or approvals could result in the imposition of substantial penalties or require us to incur substantial costs or temporarily suspend operation of one or more of our vessels.
9
We believe that the heightened level of environmental and quality concerns among insurance underwriters, regulators and charterers is leading to greater inspection and safety requirements on all vessels and may accelerate the scrapping of older vessels throughout the industry. Increasing environmental and safety concerns have created a demand for vessels that conform to the stricter environmental and safety standards. We are required to maintain operating standards for all of our vessels for operational safety, quality maintenance, continuous training of our officers and crews, and compliance with international as well as South American laws and regulations. We believe that the operation of our vessels is in substantial compliance with applicable environmental, health and safety laws and regulations; however, because such laws and regulations are frequently changing and may impose increasingly stricter requirements or be enforced more strictly, such future requirements may limit our ability to do business, increase our operating costs, require reductions in cargo capacity, ship modifications or other operational changes or restrictions, lead to reduced availability of insurance coverage or increased policy costs, result in denial of access to certain ports or waters or detention in certain ports, force the early retirement of our vessels, and/or affect their resale value, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
Environmental and Safety Regulation—IMO
The IMO is the United Nations agency concerned with maritime safety and the prevention of pollution by ships. The IMO has adopted a number of international conventions with respect to maritime safety, pollution prevention and liability and compensation, the most significant of which are described below.
IMO—Pollution Prevention
The MARPOL Convention (“MARPOL”), which was adopted by the IMO in 1973 and has been updated through various amendments, imposes environmental standards on the shipping industry relating to oil spills, management of garbage, the handling and disposal of noxious liquids, harmful substances in packaged forms, sewage and air emissions. In particular, in 1992, amendments to Annex I of MARPOL requirements imposed phase-out dates for tankers that are not certified as double hull. Annex I of MARPOL, which was subsequently revised in 2001 and 2003, has been adopted by all countries in the Hidrovia Region, other than Paraguay. In 1984, Argentinean authorities (the “PNA”) adopted MARPOL for domestic trade. In 2008, the PNA adopted a resolution for the phase-out for single hull river vessels and barges from 2013 to 2018. This new regulation may accelerate the scrapping/modification of older river vessels and barges.
Annex III of MARPOL regulates the transportation of marine pollutants, including standards on packing, marking, labeling, documentation, stowage, quality limitations and pollution prevention. Annex III has been adopted by all countries in the Hidrovia Region, other than Paraguay. These requirements have been expanded by the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code, which imposes additional standards for all aspects of the transportation of dangerous goods and marine pollutants by sea.
Air Emissions
In September 1997, the IMO adopted Annex VI to MARPOL to address air pollution from ships. Annex VI was ratified in May 2004 and became effective in May 2005. Of the Hidrovia countries, as of January 31, 2013, only Brazil has adopted Article VI of MARPOL. Annex VI sets limits on sulphur oxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from vessel exhausts and prohibits deliberate emissions of ozone depleting substances (such as halons and chlorofluorocarbons), emissions of volatile compounds from cargo tanks, and the shipboard incineration of specific substances. Annex VI also includes a global cap on the sulphur content of fuel oil and allows for special areas to be established with more stringent controls on sulphur emissions.
In October 2008, the IMO adopted amendments to Annex VI regarding particulate matter, nitrogen oxide and sulphur oxide emission standards that entered into force in July 1, 2010. The amended Annex VI aims to reduce air pollution from vessels by, among other things, implementing a progressive reduction of sulphur oxide emissions from ships and establishing new tiers of stringent nitrogen oxide emission standards for marine engines. We may incur additional costs to comply with these revised standards. The amendments include Regulation 15 of Annex VI of MARPOL 73/78, as revised by IMO Resolution MEPC.176 (58), which regulates volatile organic compound (“VOC”) emissions from tankers in designated ports or terminals of an entity regulating such emissions. Regulation 15.6 requires that a tanker carrying crude oil must have on board and implement a VOC Management Plan approved by the flag state in accordance with IMO resolution MEPC.185 (59). This VOC Management Plan must be specific to each ship. Our tanker vessels have an approved VOC management plan.
Ballast Water
The IMO adopted the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments in February 2004 (the “BWM Convention”). The BWM Convention’s implementing regulations call for a phased introduction of mandatory ballast water exchange requirements, to be replaced in time with mandatory concentration limits. The BWM Convention will not enter into force until 12 months after it has been adopted by 30 member states, the combined merchant fleets of which represent not less than 35% of the gross tonnage of the world’s merchant shipping. To date, there has not been sufficient adoption of
10
this standard by member-states representing enough of the gross tonnage of the world’s fleet for it to enter into force. However, as of January 31, 2013, the Convention has been ratified by 36 states, representing 29.1% of the global merchant shipping fleet’s gross tonnage, and its entry-into-force with attendant compliance costs may therefore be anticipated in the foreseeable future. Of the Hidrovia countries, as of January 31, 2013, only Brazil has adopted the BWM Convention.
If the mid-ocean exchange of ballast water is made mandatory at the international level, or if water treatment requirements are implemented, the cost of compliance could increase for ocean carriers. Although we do not believe that the costs of compliance with a mandatory mid-ocean ballast exchange would be material, it is difficult to predict the overall impact of such a requirement on our business.
Hidrovia Convention—RIOCON
The Hidrovia countries (Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay) are beginning the discussion to standardize all requirements and regulations relating to pollution from vessels. The CIH (Comité Intergubernamental de la Hidrovia) is developing a new convention named RIOCON (an adapted version of MARPOL). Additional or new conventions, laws and regulations may be adopted that could adversely affect our ability to manage our ships.
IMO—Safety
The IMO has adopted the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (the “SOLAS Convention”) and the International Convention on Load Lines of 1966 (the “LL Convention”), which imposes standards for the regulation of design and operational features of ships. The SOLAS Convention has been adopted by all of the countries in the Hidrovia Region, and, as of January 31, 2013, the LL Convention has been adopted by all of the countries in the Hidrovia Region other than Paraguay. We believe that all of our vessels are in substantial compliance with standards imposed by the SOLAS Convention and the LL Convention.
The operation of our vessels is subject to the requirements set forth in the IMO International Management Code for the Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention (the “ISM Code”) pursuant to Chapter IX of the SOLAS Convention. The ISM Code requires vessel owners and bareboat charterers to develop and maintain an extensive “Safety Management System” that includes, among other things, the adoption of a safety and environmental protection policy setting forth instructions and procedures for safe operation and describing procedures for dealing with emergencies. The ISM Code requires that vessel operators obtain a safety management certificate for each vessel they operate. No vessel can obtain a certificate unless its manager has been awarded a document of compliance, issued by each flag state, under the ISM Code. The failure of a vessel owner or bareboat charterer to comply with the ISM Code may subject such party to increased liability, may decrease available insurance coverage for the affected vessels, and may result in a denial of access to, or detention in, certain ports. Currently, each of the vessels in our fleet is ISM code-certified. However, there can be no assurance that such certification will be maintained indefinitely.
Oil Pollution Liability
Many countries have ratified and follow the liability scheme adopted by the IMO and set out in the International Convention of Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage (the “CLC”) and the Convention for the Establishment of an International Fund for Oil Pollution of 1971, as amended. Under these conventions and depending on whether the country in which the damage results is a party to the 1992 Protocol to the CLC, a vessel’s registered owner is strictly liable for pollution damage caused on the territorial waters of a contracting state by discharge of persistent oil, subject to certain complete defenses. This liability is subject to a financial limit calculated by reference to the tonnage of the ship. The right to limit liability is forfeited under the CLC where the spill is caused by the owner’s actual fault and, under the 1992 Protocol, where the spill is caused by the owner’s intentional or reckless conduct. Vessels trading to contracting states must provide evidence of insurance covering the limited liability of the owner. Of the countries in the Hidrovia Region, only Argentina and Uruguay have adopted the 1992 Protocol to the CLC. In jurisdictions where the CLC has not been adopted, various legislative schemes or common law govern, and liability is imposed either on the basis of fault or in a manner similar to the CLC.
Also at the international level, the IMO International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage, 2001 (the “Bunker Convention”) was adopted in March 2001 and became effective in November 2008. The Bunker Convention imposes strict liability on ship owners for pollution damage in jurisdictional waters of ratifying states caused by discharges of “bunker oil” (oil used or intended for use in the operation or propulsion of the ship) in order to ensure that adequate, prompt and effective compensation is available to persons who suffer damage caused by spills of oil, when carried as fuel in ships’ bunkers. The Bunker Convention applies to damage caused in the territory, including the territorial sea, and in exclusive economic zones of party states and provides a free-standing instrument covering pollution damage only. As with the CLC upon which the Bunker Convention is modeled, a key requirement in this convention is the need for the registered owner of a vessel to maintain compulsory insurance cover. To date, none of the countries in the Hidrovia Region have adopted the Bunker Convention.
11
Another key provision is the requirement for direct action, which allows a claim for compensation for pollution damage to be brought directly against an insurer. The Bunker Convention requires ships over 1,000 gross tonnage to maintain insurance or other financial security, such as the guarantee of a bank or similar financial institution, to cover the liability of the registered owner for pollution damage in an amount equal to the limits of liability under the applicable national or international limitation regime, but in all cases, not exceeding an amount calculated in accordance with the Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims, 1976, as amended (the “1976 Convention”). Rights to limit liability under the 1976 Convention are forfeited where a spill is caused by a shipowner’s intentional or reckless conduct. Some jurisdictions have ratified the 1996 LLMC Protocol to the 1976 Convention, which provides for liability limits substantially higher than those set forth in the 1976 Convention. Finally, some jurisdictions are not a party to either the 1976 Convention or the 1996 LLMC Protocol, and therefore shipowners’ rights to limit liability for maritime pollution in such jurisdictions may be uncertain. To date, none of the countries in the Hidrovia region have adopted the 1976 Convention and the 1996 LLMC Protocol.
Title VII of the Navigation and Security Protocol of RIOCON, applies to the prevention, reduction and control of pollution from vessels in the Hidrovía Region.
Additionally, each Member State of RIOCON has its own laws related to oil pollution.
• | Argentina: The Water Pollution Prevention & Surveillance Act (22.190) prohibits the dumping of oil in the waterways and establishes rules for the prevention of pollution of waterways and other elements of the environment by pollutant agents from vessels and naval devices. This Act also makes an owner and a “disponent owner” of a vessel (i.e., the person or company that has commercial control over a vessel’s operations without owning the vessel) that causes pollution strictly liable for any clean up costs and imposes fines for violations. The Dangerous Waste Act (24.051) regulates the creation, handling, transport and final disposal of dangerous waste and makes the owner and/or guardian of the waste strictly liable and imposes fines and/or imprisonment for violations. The National Environmental Policy Act (25.675) establishes the minimum budgets needed to achieve sustainable and adequate management of the environment, makes the person who causes the environmental damage strictly liable, and states that activities that could pollute the environment must be insured. Chapter VIII of the REGINAVE (Maritime, River and Lake Navigation Regime) also governs environmental issues and imposes fines for violations. The International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation (OPRC 1990) is also in force in Argentina (Act N° 24.292). The OPRC 1990 requires governments of coastal states to establish measures for dealing with pollution incidents. The Convention calls for the establishment of stockpiles of oil spill combating equipment, holding exercises and development of detailed plans for dealing with pollution incidents. According to the OPRC 1990 tankers should have an oil pollution emergency plan on board, among other measures. Argentina is also part of the 1972 Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter (Act N° 21.947) enacted to promote the effective control and prevent of all sources of pollution of the marine environment. The Convention further prohibits the dumping of any wastes or other matter in whatever form or condition except authorized. |
• | Bolivia: A carrier is in principle liable for any pollution damage caused by cargo carried under its care. This liability may be extended to the cargo owner. |
• | Brazil: Act Nº 6.938 (National Environmental Policy) imposes strict liability on a person who causes pollution and authorizes fines for violations. In addition, Act N° 9.966 sets forth requirements for the prevention and control of pollution by oil and other substances and imposes civil liability and fines upon persons causing pollution. In December 1997, Brazil signed together with Argentina an Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, which fosters the cooperation to preserve the marine environment, especially with respect the pollution of coastal areas. |
• | Paraguay: The Constitution of Paraguay regulates protection of the environment and the carrier, the cargo owners and any persons connected to a spill or pollution incident may be held strictly liable, jointly and severally. Paraguay, together with all the countries of the MERCOSUR has signed the Framework Agreement on Environtment (2003), which also promotes the environmental protection within the area. |
• | Uruguay: Uruguay enacted Law N° 16.688, in order to regulate the prevention and surveillance of pollution in Uruguayan waters. Law N° 16.688 provides for strict, joint and several liability of owners and disponent owners of vessels or other floating devices, aircrafts and shore and off-shore crafts or installations that cause pollution for any damages and cleanup costs and imposes fines in case of violations. In Uruguay, Act N° 13.833 forbids dumping hydrocarbons and any harmful substance and imposes fines and other penalties in case of infringement. |
We currently maintain, for each of our owned vessels, insurance coverage against pollution liability risks in the amount of $1.0 billion per event. The insured risks include penalties and fines as well as civil liabilities and expenses resulting from accidental pollution. However, this insurance coverage is subject to exclusions, deductibles and other terms and conditions. If any liabilities or expenses fall within an exclusion from coverage, or if damages from a catastrophic incident exceed the $1.0 billion limitation of coverage per event, our cash flow, profitability and financial position could be materially and adversely impacted.
12
Greenhouse Gas Regulation
In February 2005, the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change entered into force. Pursuant to the Kyoto Protocol, adopting countries are required to implement national programs to reduce emissions of certain gases, generally referred to as greenhouse gases, which are suspected of contributing to global warming. Currently, the greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping do not come under the Kyoto Protocol.
In December 2011, UN climate change talks took place in Durban and concluded with an agreement referred to as the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action. In preparation for the Durban Conference, the International Chamber of Shipping (“ICS”) produced a briefing document, confirming the shipping industry’s commitment to cut shipping emissions by 20% by 2020, with significant further reductions thereafter. The ICS called on the participants in the Durban Conference to give the IMO a clear mandate to deliver emissions reductions through market-based measures, for example a shipping industry environmental compensation fund. Notwithstanding the ICS’ request for global regulation of the shipping industry, the Durban Conference did not result in any proposals specifically addressing the shipping industry’s role in climate change. However, the IMO has been developing a work plan to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping through the development of technical, operational and marketbased measures. As part of this work plan, in July 2011 the IMO adopted mandatory measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from shipping. Specifically, regulations under Annex VI of MARPOL were amended to add a new Chapter 4 that mandates an Energy Efficiency Design Index for new ships and a Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan for all ships. The regulations apply to all ships over 400 gross tonnage and came into effect on January 2, 2013. Of the Hidrovia countries, to date only Brazil has adopted Article VI of MARPOL. Any passage of climate control legislation or further implementation of regulatory initiatives by the IMO or individual countries where we operate that restrict emissions of greenhouse gases from vessels could require us to make significant financial expenditures that we cannot predict with certainty at this time.
Inspections
A variety of governmental and private entities subject our vessels to both scheduled and unscheduled inspections. Inspection procedures can result in the seizure of our vessels or their cargos, delays in the loading, offloading or delivery and the levying of customs duties, fines or other penalties against us. The primary inspection programs to which we are subject are described below.
Inspection by Classification Societies
Every oceangoing vessel must be “classed” by a classification society. The classification society certifies that the vessel is “in class,” signifying that the vessel has been built and maintained in accordance with the rules of the classification society and complies with applicable rules and regulations of the vessel’s country of registry and the international conventions of which that country is a member. In addition, where surveys are required by international conventions and corresponding laws and ordinances of a flag state, the classification society will usually undertake them on application or by official order, acting on behalf of the authorities concerned.
The classification society also undertakes on request other surveys and checks that are required by regulations and requirements of the flag state. These surveys are subject to agreements made in each individual case and/or to the regulations of the country concerned.
For maintenance of the class, regular and extraordinary surveys of hull, machinery, including the electrical plant, and any special equipment classed are required to be performed as follows:
Annual Surveys.For oceangoing vessels, annual surveys are conducted for the hull and the machinery, including the electrical plant, and, where applicable, for special equipment classed, at intervals of 12 months from the date of commencement of the class period indicated in the certificate.
Intermediate Surveys.Extended annual surveys are referred to as intermediate surveys and typically are conducted two and a half years after commissioning and each class renewal. Intermediate surveys may be carried out on the occasion of the second or third annual survey.
Special Surveys.Special surveys, also known as class renewal surveys, are carried out every five years for the vessel’s hull, machinery, including the electrical plant, and for any special equipment classed, at the intervals indicated by the character of classification for the hull. At the special survey, the vessel is thoroughly examined, including audio-gauging to determine the thickness of the steel structures. Should the thickness be found to be less than class requirements, the classification society would prescribe steel renewals. The classification society may grant a one-year grace period for completion of the special survey. Substantial amounts of funds may have to be spent for steel renewals to pass a special survey if the vessel experiences excessive wear and tear. In lieu of the special survey, a vessel owner has the option of arranging with the classification society for the vessel’s machinery to be on a continuous survey cycle. This process is also referred to as continuous survey machinery. We have made arrangements with the classification societies for most of our vessels to be on a continuous survey cycle for machinery.
13
All of our oceangoing vessels are certified as being “in class.” For inland waterways navigation, class is not mandatory; although most insurance underwriters and oil major vetting department require class certificates (by a classification society which is a member of the International Association of Classification Societies). We were among the first owners operating in the Hidrovia Region offering barges and pushboats with class certificates. Presently, we have almost the complete inland fleet under class. For the inland fleet, the statutory certificates are issued directly by the flag authority.
Our fleet is subject to regularly scheduled drydocking and special surveys which are carried out every six to seven years. Currently, our inland fleet is scheduled for intermediate surveys and special surveys as follows: Special Drydock every seven years and Afloat Intermediate Inspection in the middle of each seven-year period. All areas subject to survey as defined by the classification society are required to be surveyed at least once per class period, unless shorter intervals between surveys are prescribed elsewhere. Most oceangoing vessels are also drydocked every 30 to 36 months for inspection of the underwater parts and for repairs related to inspections. River units are only drydocked every seven years for inspection of the underwater parts and for repairs related to inspections. If any defects are found, the classification surveyor will issue a “recommendation” which must be rectified by the vessel owner within prescribed time limits.
SIRE Inspections
One of the most significant safety initiatives to be introduced by the OCIMF, an oil industry trade group focusing on the promotion of safety and pollution prevention from tankers and at oil terminals, is the Ship Inspection Report Program (SIRE). This program was originally launched in 1993 to specifically address concerns about substandard shipping. The SIRE Program is a unique tanker risk assessment tool of value to charterers, ship operators, terminal operators and government bodies concerned with ship safety.
The SIRE system is a very large database of up-to-date information about tankers. Essentially, SIRE has focused tanker industry awareness on the importance of meeting satisfactory tanker quality and ship safety standards. Since its introduction, the SIRE Program has received industry-wide acceptance and participation by both OCIMF members, SIRE Program participants and by ship operators. The expansion of barges and small vessels into SIRE was inaugurated in late 2004. Since its introduction, more than 170,000 inspection reports have been submitted to SIRE. Currently, there are over 22,500 reports on over 8,000 vessels for inspections that have been conducted in the last 12 months. On average, program recipients access the SIRE database at a rate of more than 8,000 reports per month.
The SIRE program requires a uniform inspection protocol that is predicated by the following:
• | Vessel Inspection Questionnaire |
• | Barges Inspection Questionnaire |
• | Uniform SIRE Inspection Report |
• | Vessels Particulars Questionnaire |
• | Barge Particulars Questionnaire |
• | SIRE Enhanced Report Manager |
These features have been established to make the program more uniform and user friendly and to provide a level of transparency unique in the marine transportation industry.
SIRE has established itself as a major source of technical and operational information to prospective charterers and other program users. Its increasing use corresponds with oil industry efforts to better ascertain whether vessels are well managed and maintained.
Inspection reports are maintained on the index for a period of 12 months from the date of receipt and are maintained on the database for two years. SIRE inspection reports for our tankers are available on the database.
SIRE access is available, at a nominal cost, to OCIMF members, bulk oil terminal operators, port authorities, canal authorities, and oil, power, industrial or oil trader companies that charter tankers and barges as a normal part of their business. It is also available, free of charge, to governmental bodies which supervise safety and/or pollution prevention in respect of oil tankers/barges (e.g., port state control authorities, etc).
14
Inspection by Oil Major Vetting Departments
For the past several years the oil majors have created their own vetting departments in order to carry out their own surveys. These surveys are made by their own or external surveyors with SIRE I accreditation. Some oil majors have requirements that exceed the IMO and OCIMF requirements. YPF, for example, mandates the use of an IGS (Inert Gas System) for vessels below 20,000 dwt carrying clean products that have a flash point below 60 degrees Celsius. This requirement requires us to install IGSs in our vessels, although not compulsory under international regulations. We have successfully satisfied the operational, safety, environmental and technical vetting criteria of Axion Energy, YPF and Petrobras, and have qualified to do business with them. For Axion Energy, we have been successfully vetted for oceangoing and coastal trade and for single operations. For YPF, we have been successfully vetted for oceangoing trade. For Petrobras, we have been successfully vetted for oceangoing trade.
15
TMSA Program
OCIMF’s Tanker Management and Self Assessment (“TMSA”) program was introduced in 2004 as a tool to help vessel operators assess, measure and improve their management systems. The TMSA program has been expanded to encompass all tank vessel operators, including those managing coastal vessels and barges. The program encourages vessel operators to assess their safety management systems against listed key performance indicators and provides best practice guidance to minimize the possibility of problems reoccurring. Because non-SOLAS vessels are not subject to the ISM Code, operators of such vessels may use this guide as a tool to measure and improve their operations. A company that incorporates the guidelines contained in the TMSA into their management system may be considered as having an active assessment process, even if not being inspected under the SIRE scheme or having ISM as a management system. Vessel operators can use their assessment results to develop a phased improvement plan that improves safety and environmental performance. Although the TMSA program provides guidance, responsibility for vessel operations, and distribution of this data, lies exclusively with the vessel operator. The TMSA program builds upon the ISM Code and can provide valuable feedback to the charterer on the effectiveness of the vessel operator’s management system.
Exchange Act Section 13(r) Activities
Section 219 of the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012 added Section 13(r) to the Exchange Act. Section 13(r) requires an issuer to disclose in its annual or quarterly reports, as applicable, whether it or any of its affiliates knowingly engaged in certain activities, transactions or dealings relating to Iran or with certain natural persons or entities designated by the U.S. Treasury Department. Disclosure is required even where the activities, transactions or dealings are conducted outside the United States by non-U.S. affiliates in compliance with applicable law, and whether or not the activities are sanctionable under U.S. law.
Three VLCC, vessels owned by Navios Maritime Acquisition Corporation, an affiliated corporation (“Navios Acquisition”) and chartered to Dalian Ocean Shipping Co. (“DOSCO”) and one VLCC vessel owned by Navios Acquisition and chartered to Formosa Petrochemical Corporation of Taiwan (“FPCT”), made port calls to Iran during 2012 for a combined length of approximately 15 days for the transportation of crude oil from Iran to China and Taiwan. The shipper of the cargo in all cases was National Iranian Oil Company (“NIOC”), and the recipients of the cargoes were, respectively, Unipec Asia Company Limited, HK Intertrade Company Limited, and Formosa Petrochemical. Exchange Act Section 13(r)(1)(D)(iii) requires disclosure in an issuer’s annual or quarterly report, as applicable, if, during the period covered by the report, the Company or any of its affiliates knowingly conducted any transaction or dealing with any person or entity identified under Section 560.304 of title 31, Code of Federal Regulations (relating to the definition of the Government of Iran) without the specific authorization of a U.S. Federal department or agency. NIOC is an entity identified as the Government of Iran under the cited provision. Neither Navios Acquisition, nor, to the knowledge of Navios Acquisition, DOSCO and FPCT had any contact or dealings with the government of Iran or affiliates of the government of Iran in connection with these port calls, other than receiving cargo owned by NIOC.
The foregoing contacts were limited to a routine acceptance and loading of cargo for the benefit of DOSCO and FPCT while the vessels were on charter to and under complete operational control of DOSCO and FPCT. Although NIOC was an entity whose name appeared on the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control’s List of Blocked Persons and Specially Designated Nationals at the time of the port calls, the purchase and lifting of crude oil shipped by that entity did not constitute prohibited activity by Navios Acquisition as a non-U.S. person, and as such, this did not have any legal compliance consequence for Navios Acquisition as a non-U.S. person and to Navios Acquisition’s transactions, which had no U.S. nexus. The acceptance and transportation of the crude oil to China also did not constitute sanctionable activity under U.S. Iran sanctions laws.
Navios Acquisition’s aggregate gross revenues attributable to these 15 days of port calls was approximately $0.7 million. In light of the immaterial amount of port calls associated with these activities, Navios Acquisition has not attributed any profits to these activities. Since May 2012, Navios Acquisition’s vessels performed no voyages involving calls to Iran. Notwithstanding the foregoing, there can be no assurance that one or more charterers of Navios Acquisition will not at any future time perform voyages which, if so performed, would require disclosure pursuant to Exchange Act Section 13(r).
Risk of Loss and Liability Insurance
General
The operation of any cargo vessel includes significant risks, such as perils of navigable waters, mechanical failure of the vessel, physical damage suffered by the vessel due to explosion, fire or collision, the loss of property on board, loss or damage to cargo, business interruption, hostilities, crew and third party accidents, labor strikes, etc. In addition, there is always an inherent possibility of marine disasters like oil spillages and other environmental mishaps arising from owning and operating vessels in the international trade. Despite potential risks out of the scope of the current coverage, we believe that our present insurance set of coverage is adequate and represents the average insurance level of any well-known maritime company. We contract with high-quality insurance companies that are leaders in the industry.
Hull and Machinery and War Risk Insurances
We have marine hull and machinery and war risk insurance, which provides coverage for partial damage arising from mechanical failure (tugs and vessels only), fire, explosion, stranding, collision and grounding, as well as in case of actual or constructive total loss, for all the fleet. Each of the owned vessels is covered according to inland industry standards. Coverage is placed at Lloyd’s market.
Protection and Indemnity Insurance
Protection and indemnity (“P&I”) insurance is provided by mutual protection and indemnity associations, also known as P&I Clubs. This insurance covers third-party liabilities in connection with its shipping activities. P&I insurance is intended to cover a range of incidents, including, but not limited to, third-party liability and other related expenses arising from injury, illness or death of crew and other third parties, the loss of or damage to cargo, claims arising from collisions with other vessels, damage to third-party property, such as buoys, piers or bridges, pollution liabilities arising from oil or other substances, towage liabilities or wreck removal of the insured unit. Coverage is provided in accordance with the association’s rules and the members terms of entry subject to a limit of such sums as are provided by the International Group’s reinsurance and overspill arrangements in force at that time but currently not less than $3.1 billion for each accident or occurrence except for oil pollution liabilities which are limited to $1.0 billion for each accident or occurrence. The 13 P&I associations that comprise the International Group insure approximately 95% of the world’s commercial tonnage and have entered into a pooling agreement to reinsure each association’s liabilities. As a member of a P&I association, which is a member of the International Group, we are subject to calls payable to the associations based on our claim records as well as the claim records of all other members of the individual associations, and members of the pool of P&I associations comprising the International Group.
Environmental Insurance for Port Activities
We maintain civil liability for environmental damage caused by certain port activities. Specifically concerning Uruguayan regulations applicable to Nueva Palmira dry plant, Uruguayan Decree No. 413/992 sets forth legal, administrative, technical, and economic requirements to be met by companies providing port services, in order to qualify as such within the ports of Uruguay. Said companies must maintain a civil liability insurance covering claims and damages caused to individuals or the environment due to their service providing activities.
16
Uninsured Risks
Not all risks are insured and not all risks are insurable. The principal insurable risks, which nonetheless remain uninsured across our fleet are “loss of hire,” “off-hire,” “strikes” and “defense.” We do not insure against these risks because the costs are regarded as disproportionately high relative to the risks and/or such cover is not commercially beneficial or contractually necessary. The loss of hire or strike insurances provide, subject to a deductible, a limited indemnity for hire that would not be receivable by the shipowner for reasons set forth in such policies. Should a vessel on time charter, where the vessel is paid a fixed hire day-by-day, suffer a serious mechanical breakdown, the daily hire will no longer be payable by the charterer. The purpose of the loss of hire insurance is to secure the loss of hire during such periods. In the case of strike insurance, if a vessel is being paid a fixed sum to perform a voyage and the ship becomes strike-bound at a loading or discharging port, or the crew of the vessel goes on strike, the insurance covers the cost of running the vessel during such periods. The defense cover is intended to pay the cost of defending a member’s position in a dispute related to a contract signed with third parties. For example, if a charter party is signed and for any reason the vessel is placed off hire, the cover pays the fees of lawyers defending the member’s position, but not the amount in dispute.
Risk Management
Risk management in the river and ports logistics industry involves balancing a number of factors in a cyclical and potentially volatile environment. Fundamentally, the challenge is to appropriately allocate capital to competing opportunities of owning or chartering vessels and in our port facilities. In part, this requires a view of the overall health of the market, as well as an understanding of capital costs and returns.
We seek to manage risk through a number of strategies, including vessel control strategies (chartering and ownership) and freight carriage. Our vessel control strategies include seeking the appropriate mix of owned vessels, long- and short-term chartered-in vessels, coupled with purchase options, when available, and spot charters. We also enter into CoAs, which gives us, subject to certain limitations, the flexibility to determine the means of getting a particular cargo to its destination. In our liquid port (Petrosan), our strategy involves the analysis of market opportunities in order to buy and sell refined petroleum products, and to manage the appropriate mix in storage of owned and third-party products.
Legal Proceedings
We are subject to legal proceedings, claims and contingencies arising in the ordinary course of business. When such amounts can be estimated and the contingency is probable, management accrues the corresponding liability. While the ultimate outcome of lawsuits or other proceedings against us cannot be predicted with certainty, management does not believe the costs, individually or in aggregate, of such actions will have a material effect on our consolidated financial position, results of operations or cash flows.
17
Item 19. | Exhibits |
Exhibit No. | Description | |
12.1 | Section 302 Certification of Principal Executive Officer. + | |
12.2 | Section 302 Certification of Principal Financial Officer. + |
+ | Filed herewith. |
18
SIGNATURES
Navios South American Logistics Inc. hereby certifies that it meets all of the requirements for filing on Form 20-F/A and that it has duly caused and authorized the undersigned to sign this Amendment No. 1 on Form 20-F/A on its behalf.
NAVIOS SOUTH AMERICAN LOGISTICS INC. | ||||
By: | NAVIOS SOUTH AMERICAN LOGISTICS INC. | |||
/s/ Claudio Pablo Lopez | ||||
Name: | Claudio Pablo Lopez | |||
Title: | Chief Executive Officer, Vice Chairman and Director |
Date: November 4, 2013
19