Leonardo de la Vega, President of the Unión Industrial de San Juan (UISJ), warned that San Juan’s industry is going through a complex moment due to the decline of the domestic market and the loss of competitiveness, while copper mining emerges as an opportunity looking toward the future. He noted that mining projects will not have an immediate impact and that there are still no defined timelines. He emphasized that the local industry is not prepared to answer to the magnitude of demand and that it will be necessary to move forward with alliances, investments and business reengineering. In addition, he stressed the urgency of improving infrastructure, financing and incentives so that mining generates a real spillover into the local productive chain.
By Panorama Minero
In a context of deep contraction of the domestic market and with several industrial sectors going through a prolonged crisis, copper mining appears as one of the main sources of expectation for San Juan’s productive network. This was stated by the President of the Unión Industrial de San Juan (UISJ), Leonardo de la Vega, when analyzing the current scenario and the challenges facing the local industry in light of the potential demand from large mining projects.
De la Vega described a complex panorama for San Juan’s industry, affected not only by the recent decline in activity but by several previous years of stagnation. Faced with this adverse scenario, mining is presented as a possible path for economic traction, both for industry and for society in general, although with significant uncertainties.
The head of the UISJ emphasized that expectations surrounding mining development are high, but pointed out that there are two important factors that generate caution: timelines and the lack of concrete definitions. According to his explanation, copper projects do not generate an immediate impact on industry, but require a maturation process that can extend over several years, and today there are no precise schedules that allow anticipation of when that demand will begin to be felt effectively.
To this is added a structural issue: the local industry is not fully prepared to respond to the magnitude that copper projects would have in the construction stage. De la Vega maintained that the dimensions of these initiatives exceed, in many cases, the current capacities of San Juan’s companies.
In that sense, he highlighted the need for industrial companies to begin analyzing in greater depth what the specific demands of mining will be and how to adapt to them. This implies not only investments and productive improvements, but also cultural and organizational changes, such as the formation of temporary business unions – UTEs – and strategic alliances, even with companies from other provinces or from abroad. For De la Vega, copper mining represents an industrial process unknown to a large part of the local sector, which will require specific knowledge, greater business scale and new technical and financial capacities.
The industrial leader stressed that the central objective must be to ensure that mining spills over value throughout the productive chain of San Juan and the country. Although he acknowledged that there will be goods and services that will inevitably have to be imported, he insisted that everything that can be produced in San Juan, in the region or in the country, must be supplied by national suppliers, thus strengthening Argentina’s industrial network.
However, he warned that for this to be possible it is essential to move forward with policies that improve the competitiveness of industrial SMEs. De la Vega recalled that the need for incentives for the productive sector is not new and even precedes the discussion on the Incentive Regime for Large Investments (RIGI). In a context of high tax pressure, high domestic costs and competition with imported products — many of them without tariffs — the local industry faces serious difficulties in competing, even when it offers products of recognized quality.
The president of the UISJ also focused on structural problems that go beyond companies, such as the lack of adequate infrastructure. He pointed out the limitations of existing industrial parks, which in many cases lack basic services and territorial planning, and the absence of new spaces for industrial development. Added to this are the high logistical costs derived from San Juan’s condition as a terminal province, the lack of roads in adequate condition and a financing system with high rates and limited access to credit. This is added to the need to have freight railway lines that allow transport and logistics costs to be reduced.
Despite this complex diagnosis, De la Vega highlighted the effort that industries are making internally, with improvements in productivity, energy efficiency, processes and quality, as a strategy to sustain themselves. Nevertheless, he warned that the main problem today does not lie in product quality, but in the systemic competitiveness of Argentine industry compared to imports.
In this scenario, the president of the Unión Industrial de San Juan considered that the challenge lies in anticipating, working on the future needs of copper mining and adapting local capacities from now on, which includes preparation, strategic alliances, infrastructure and policies that support the sector.
