Shanghai Dredging Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of state-owned China Communications Construction Co. Ltd, has entered the contest for the contract to keep clear a stretch of the Paraguay-Paraná Waterway, which connects Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, MercoPress reports.

The South American news agency says the contract entails deepening and maintaining 1,238 km of the waterway between the confluence of the Paraná and Paraguay rivers, and the River Plate, beginning in 2021.

The report quotes an official of the Rosário Stock Exchange, Alfredo Sesé, as saying the job would require investment of an estimated US$3.8 billion.

The stretch in question links some 25 ports through which 92 million tonnes of Brazilian, Bolivian and Paraguayan grain were exported last year, MercoPress quotes Mr Sesé as saying.