A network of oil and gas pipelines transports the products to Bahía Blanca, where the main petrochemical hub is located, and to the industrial conurbation that stretches between Rosario and La Plata and whose main nucleus is Greater Buenos Aires. Historically, Argentine mining has been scarce, but it has been activated in the last decade, mainly on metallic minerals: copper (3% of exports), gold, silver, zinc, manganese, uranium and sulfur.
Mining resources are concentrated in the cordilleran provinces along 4,500 km. Argentine mineral exports went from 253 million dollars in 1996 to 2,650 million in 2006, just over 3% of the total. The Argentine Sea is located on an extensive underwater platform, very rich in fishing resources, which reaches a width of 550 km at 52º South latitude and 1,890,000 km². However, fishing has been a marginal production, and due to the population crisis of hake (the main Argentine fishery product) caused by excessive fishing during the 90s of the 20th century, the sector’s share in total exports has increased. reduced from 3% to 2%.
On the contrary, forestry and timber production, mainly pines and eucalyptus, has been expanding, centered in the Mesopotamian provinces, exceeding 2% of the total exported.
Manufacturing industry and construction
As a country located in South America according to MATHGENERAL.COM, the Argentine manufacturing industry is the sector that contributes the most value to GDP, with 17.5% of the total (2007). [53] The industrial manufacturing sector is also one of the main generators of employment (together with commerce and the public sector), with 13% in 2007, [54] For its part, the construction industry contributes 6.7% of GDP (2007) and has been the main driver of the recovery in employment after 2002, occupying 9.5% of the total workforce in 2007. [53] [54]
In Argentine industry there are two large sectors, of similar size, each contributing approximately one third of total exports: [55]
- agribusiness, called manufacturing of agricultural origin (MOA);
- the industry of non-agricultural origin, called manufacturing of industrial origin (MOI).
Among the manufacturing industries of agricultural origin, the oil industry stands out, a member of the soybean chain, the one with the highest growth in the last two decades, concentrating 31.8% of the total food sector and 20% of exports country totals. This is followed by meat (11.1%), milk (7.7%), coffee and chocolate (7.5%), wine and other alcoholic beverages (5.7%), that of bread, pasta and cookies (4.5%), that of wheat flour (4.5%), that of beer (4.1%), etc. [56]
The main branches of non-agricultural industries are automotive manufacturing, which contributes 8.7% of exports, chemical (5.6%) and metallurgy (5.3%), machinery (3.4%) and plastics (2.6%) (percentages corresponding to 2006). [57] The paper, gemstone, rubber and textile industries are also important.
Transport
Buenos Aires, all the provincial capitals except Ushuaia and medium-sized municipalities are interconnected by 37,740 km of paved roads. Argentina also has 600,000 km of municipal streets. The historic Buenos Aires – La Plata and Autovía 2 motorways have been added to the Córdoba – Carlos Paz, Rosario – Córdoba, Villa Mercedes – Mendoza motorways, among others. In addition, several cities have four-lane beltways.
The number of vehicles that make up the Argentine automotive fleet is estimated at 8,527,256, distributed in 5,325,231 cars, 1,370,312 of light vehicles, 417,042 of cargo and 62,785 for passenger transport, without counting 517,449 units not The railway system was privatized in the early 1990s, encompassing both freight and urban passenger transport.
Ezeiza International Airport, about 35 km from downtown Buenos Aires, is the largest in the country and has cargo handling and storage facilities. The Aerolineas Argentinas company, which was privatized in 1990 and now again in the hands of the Argentine state; performs national and international flights. There are also various domestic airlines. The main international airlines use Buenos Aires as a destination or stopover on their routes.
Energy
Argentina produces, according to data from 2005, around 101,176 gigawatts per hour of electrical energy. The main sources of energy used by Argentina for the generation of electricity are hydroelectric (34 041 Gigawatts per hour per year) and thermal (56 385 Gigawatts per hour per year), together with nuclear energy production (6873 gigawatts per hour per year) [64] Electric power is distributed by two main systems, the National Interconnected System and the Patagonian Interconnected System, as well as by some minor systems isolated from both.
The Atucha Nuclear Power Plant was the first nuclear power plant built in Latin America. [65] Argentina is the nation with the largest number of nuclear facilities in the region.
The electricity sector in Argentina constitutes the third energy market in Latin America. It depends mainly on thermal generation (~ 57% of installed capacity) and hydroelectric generation (~ 39%). New renewable energy technologies are very little exploited. The country still has great untapped hydroelectric potential. However, the predominant thermal generation from natural gas combustion is at risk due to uncertainty about future gas supply. The extraction of oil and natural gas reaches 38,323 thousand cubic meters per year and 48 738 million cubic meters per year respectively. [66] Oil reserves are estimated at 346,634 thousand cubic meters, 186 while natural gas reserves reach 455,625 million cubic meters.
