Sinergy launches billionaire project in Guarujá
Valor Econômico - 04/14/2008
The region of the municipality of Guarujá, on the coast of the State of São Paulo, which faces the estuary of the port of Santos, was chosen for the implementation of a megaproject that combines a port, retroport and airport, with investments exceeding R$ 1 billion (US$ 571.4 million). The special purpose entity (SPE) will be formed by the airport operation, financial and production sectors. Next week, Synergy Participações, which coordinates and participates as one of the investors in the project, will make its presentation to the municipal and port authorities. It proposes to handle, after the stages are completed, 150 thousand containers a year and 160 million liters of bulk liquids in the fifth year, of ethanol and other chemical products. The static capacity for the bulk liquids may reach 720 thousand cubic meters until the fifth year after its implementation. "We have been working in this project for three years and, with the boom of the economy, we come to the conclusion that it is ready to be implemented, taking into account its strategical location. It is very close to highways, railroads, and the runway of the Air Base of Santos, all of them close to the port", states Gilson Medeiros Júnior, director of Synergy. In the port area that borders the estuary, the project occupies the extension of one kilometer, with a 500 thousand-square-meter contiguous rear and a retroarea of more than 1 million square meters, four kilometers away from the wharf. The wharf will have a pier form. The project, exclusively announced to Valor, foresees the improvement and sharing of the current civil and military runway managed by the Air Base of Santos, which would be increased from 1,400 meters to 1,862 meters. The city government of the muncipality of Guarujá has a project for the same equipment, approved by the environmental authorities of São Paulo, by the Ministry of Aeronautics, and by the National Agency of Civil Aviation (Anac). "There is only one remaining agreement to be dealt with the Aeronautics authority in São Paulo", says Guarujá's Planning secretary, Mauro Scazufca. According to Medeiros Júnior, the private sector is willing to pay for the entire project, while the city government would have the participation of public funds. The works of the metropolitan airport of Guarujá, as it is called, are budgeted in R$ 21 million (US$ 12 million). According to Medeiros, the entrepreneurs, whose names have not yet been disclosed, after the awarding of the licenses, guarantee that the airport terminal will be in operating conditions in eight months, whereas the areas and equipment of the port and retroport, in 24 months. Next to the Synergy project there is the on progress Coimex group's Embraport project, with the same purpose of handling containers and ethanol.