Sean Smith Launches Barge Brokerage

Interest in U.S. barges, towboats and related equipment remains strong in South America, says Sean P. Smith—and he should know. Smith spent years in Paraguay and Brazil working on river logistics for ACBL and ADM. He speaks fluent Spanish and Portuguese and has a network of friends and contacts across the region. Smith recently completed the filing of documents for his new barge brokerage and consulting service, Rivers Marine LLC.

Smith was 16 years old when he first worked as a deckhand on the mv. Pedernales for a summer. His father, Patrick J. Smith, was in the tank barge business in the Houston area. “I used to visit towboats and shipyards with him and drove crew changes and supplies to boats,” Smith said. “He taught me a lot about the business.”

He worked for his dad at Canal Barge and eventually moved to Venezuela to work for ACBL in 1998.

Beginning in 2012, Smith served as general manager of an ADM subsidiary, Naviera Chaco SRL, in Paraguay through 2020. “In 2020, ADM had a new challenge for me in health and safety, and I transferred back to the U.S. with my family. We moved to St. Louis and worked with ARTCO, the South American barge business, Naviera Chaco and ADM’s barge business in Romania on the Danube.”

The history of U.S. sales of towboats and barges to South American countries goes back decades. After World War II, the U.S. had an oversupply of steel towboats and barges, many of which were sold overseas as surplus. Those sales were often one-off transactions.
Beginning in the 1970s, Paraguay’s and Bolivia’s grain corridor development on the Paraguay–Paraná river system drove increased demand. American firms—including Halter Marine, Jeffboat, St. Louis Ship and EMD for engines—began regular sales to the region. U.S. naval architects and barge-design firms (e.g., CT Marine, Guido Perla, Marine Design, Inc.) became deeply involved. Barges shifted from mainly used U.S. hulls to newbuilds built to U.S. designs in Brazilian and Paraguayan shipyards.

In the 1990s, Brazil was rapidly expanding acreage in the Mato Grosso region. Brazil’s soybean expansion along the Amazon and Tapajós/Paraguay River routes created more large-scale demand for barge equipment. American engines (Caterpillar, Cummins, EMD), Z-drive systems, and hull designs became standard. Hidrovias do Brasil, Ultrabulk, Navegación Guaraní, Naviera Chaco and other firms imported or licensed full U.S.-style integrated barge-tow systems.

Not that tow sizes ever equaled those on the Mississippi River, Smith said. “Their tow sizes get about half the size of ours,” he said, adding that all of the major South American transport river corridors have suffered in recent years from persistent low water. Low water typically occurs outside of the major harvest seasons, but not always, and the weather is unpredictable.

China is now building American-style pushboats for use on South American rivers, but American equipment has a long history in the region, and a great reputation. Smith hopes that appreciation will continue.