ICBC explores funding AMBA I project worth USD 1.1 billion in Argentina (linked to Record ID#97566)

On January 13th, 2022, the Argentinian Secretary of Energy, Darío Martínez, and the Undersecretary of Electric Power, Federico Basualdo, held a meeting with the authorities of the company China Electric Power Equipment and Technology Co., Ltd. (CET), and its branch CET Argentina.

The meeting discussed the formation of the contract for the design of engineering, supply and construction of the work "Project to improve the National Network 500 kV Metropolitan Area of ​​Buenos Aires Stage I" (Spanish: “Proyecto de mejoramiento de la Red Nacional 500 kV Área Metropolitana de Buenos Aires Etapa I”), with an investment of more than USD 1.1 billion.

The meeting was attended by diplomatic representatives from both countries and officials from the Bank of China Argentina branch and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). See Record ID#97566 for Bank of China's contribution.

The work will make it possible to expand the existing electricity supply capacity in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (Spanish: Área Metropolitana de Buenos Aires, AMBA) especially from new renewable sources.

The plan will strengthen the AMBA energy ring by building a new plant: the Plomer 500/220/132 kV Transformer Station (Spanish: Estación Transformadora (ET) Plomer ). The new plant will be connected to the grid with new high-voltage lines.

The new high voltage lines will increase the number of corridors for the entrance of electrical energy to AMBA from the south and the north, especially new renewable energies.

Finally, the new power line will improve the supply conditions of the demand installed in the substations of Luján, Mercedes, Zappalorto and Casanova, reducing the possibility of outages and avoiding Non-Supplied Energy (ENS) in the AMBA energy ring.

The project will also update the Argnetine Interconnect System (Spanish: Sistema Argentino de Interconexión, SADI) to improve automatic response and cybersecurity.

The project was considered part of the Framework Agreement for Cooperation in Economic and Investment Matters between the Government of the Argentine Republic and the Government of the People's Republic of China.

Then, in June 2023, Economy Minister Sergio Massa reportedly "secured" funding from ICBC and Bank of China for the project, but there is no evidence a loan contract was formally signed.

Then, in December 2024, it was reported that the project would be executed by the private sector and pre-financed by a fee charged on users, rather than funded by Chinese creditors.

A new bidding process for the project was initiated in late 2024 but was put on hold in early 2025 due to disagreement over the user fee.

As such, it appears the Government of Argentina no longer expects to fund the project via loans from ICBC and Bank of China.