Montecon has taken the necessary time to evaluate the situation, considering that it is a usual practice of Katoen Natie to undertake it against the different authorities and port operators through press campaigns.Montecon has always considered that the issues of commercial and operational competition involving public and private actors operating in the Port of Montevideo or in any other port, should be solved in other areas and not through repeated public campaigns, especially when they handle partial and interested information. In this way, the image of the service of the Port of Montevideo, which has had an extraordinary growth and is of vital importance for the economy and national production, can be affected. In the above-mentioned statement, it is clear what the objective of Katoen Natie is: to monopolize the port operations to the maximum, a strategy that it applies repeatedly. It says it very clearly: in view of the need and the possibility of providing storage service to refrigerated containers, which for obvious reasons represent a very sensitive sector of the port operations in Uruguay, it is stated: "...the Specialized Container Terminal has more than 3,500 additional intakes, there being enough supply to meet any demand that the Port of Montevideo ...". The intense campaign has continued with declarations from various people and press releases without considering in any way the basic reflection on the reasons of the authorities and port operators to facilitate the use of the Port of Montevideo to the various users, particularly when it comes to the delicate handling of refrigerated containers and without considering in the least the interest of Uruguayan producers and exporters. We are not going to lend ourselves to this methodology that seeks to install the idea and the monopolistic practice of TCP against the interests of the public and public-private sector of the Port of Montevideo. Today it is against Montecon, but it puts all the actors of the sector in front of that risk. What worries is not this specific case, but the persistence of those methods towards the objective of the monopoly. Montecon reaffirms its full disposition to continue investing, favoring the extension of services together with other private companies, developing the activities in the public areas of the Port of Montevideo, in the full respect of the laws, norms and contracts in force. The public-private collaboration and in this case the widest operative of all the port facilities is a key to the growth and national development.Montevideo, February 23rd 2017MONTECON S.A.