design the new facility. Conceived as four contiguous impounded docks the works began in 1884. The first dock was completed in 1888, and inaugurated on 28 January 1889, by the most prominent early supporter of the plan, Carlos Pellegrini (who was now Vice President of Argentina). The Panic of 1890 delayed these works, however, and they were completed only in 1897. The port, known as Puerto Madero, had by 1907 become insufficient to meet growing maritime traffic. Puerto Madero, and its complementary Catalinas docks, could handle a maximum of 30,000 tons of cereals daily (cereals were the leading export of Argentina, and the foreign exchange these shipments earned were key to the mercantile model of the time). They operated near or at capacity, however, and an expansion of the port was authorized in September 1907 by President José Figueroa Alcorta. Luis Huergo's dormant plans for staggered docks were approved in 1911, and work promptly began on the Puerto Nuevo (New Port). Located north of Catalinas Norte, this project was directed by Richard Souldby Oldham, Walker & Co., was delayed by the scarcity of material and financing brought about by World War I, and would ultimately require 15 years. This would add a breakwater, five more docks, and then a sixth, to the existing infrastructure, and when these additions were inaugurated in 1925, the Port of Buenos Aires was the largest in Latin America, and the southern hemisphere. Operations The Port of Buenos Aires is operated by the state-owned General Port Administration. It was originally established in 1949 by President Juan Perón as the Dirección Nacional de Puertos (National Port Directorate), and oversaw all major port operations in Argentina. The entity was reorganized as the Administración General de Puertos by President Raúl Alfonsín on 4 September 1987. Chronic losses, which by the early 1990s averaged over us$60 million yearly, prompted its 1992 privatization by President Carlos Menem. Menem, however, vetoed the sale of the Port of Buenos Aires itself, and it remained in the federal government's aegis. The Argentine maritime fleet was initially developed by Croatian Argentine businessman Nicolás Mihanovich, whose Argentina Navigation Company and related firms dominated local shipping during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The firm was sold to a consortium led by a British shipping magnate, Lord Kylsant, and an Argentine investor, Alberto Dodero, in 1918, and would operate as the Compañia Argentina de Navegación Dodero