With Vaca Muerta and mining, a Canadian multinational plans to triple its business in Argentina

Finning Cat, present in Argentina since 2003, projects a turnover of 400 million dollars this year in the country. The heart of your business is equipment support: It has workshops close to the deposits and two component reconstruction centers, one of them in the Buenos Aires town of Tortuguitas.

Germán Wilson, vice president of Operations and country manager of Finning Cat Argentina, explains: “A reconstruction center is a factory in itself. We are not importers, but we give industrial value to the equipment, since For every dollar of replacement imports, 3 dollars of new product are no longer imported.and it is treated with Argentine technicians”.

The company has 753 employees in the country and half of them are technicians. Finning won 5 contracts in mining and was awarded by the Swiss giant Glencore to operate in the Bajo la Alumbrera mine, in Catamarca, which will produce copper again starting in 2028. There it will provide 22 trucks, 3 shovels and support equipment, with which it will add more activity and work. In addition, it participates in 3 other tenders.

This movement allowed reorient the activity of Finning Cat, which suffered the stoppage of public works in 2024 and turned its axis towards Vaca Muerta and mining.

Wilson, who is also vice president of the Argentine Canadian Chamber of Commerce (CCAC), points out that his business “is based on having capacities available for when increased activity arrives.” “Although it is not seen by the common population, we are crazy preparing“, he assures.

Chilean by birth, the executive compares the current situation of Argentine mining with that of Chile between the late 80s and early 90s, when activity took off on the other side of the Andes mountain range.

“Copper is the new soy“, Wilson is excited; although the mineral will not represent what the legume does for Argentine public accounts, it is one of the big bets by the Government to diversify the sources of dollar supply and accumulate a huge trade surplus, along with agriculture, oil and gas.

That is why Canadian Kevin Parkes, president and global CEO of Finning, often visits San Juan, home of the Argentine mining boom. A month ago, he participated in the fair organized by Panorama Minero and He promised investments of about 600 million dollars for the coming years.