ALL and Standard start operating by tracks to Santos
DCI
The first operation to carry containers through tracks, between the Mid-West Region and the Port of Santos, in São Paulo, started yesterday. The transport of 28 refrigerated containers, leaving of Santos, until a terminal in the State of Mato Grosso, whence they will return loaded with beef to the docks of Santos, is the result of the partnership announced between America Latina Logística (ALL) and Standard Logística. R$ 15 million (US$ 7.8 million) was invested in the project, both in the Container Terminal of Alto Taquari (MT) and in the intermodal unit of Cubatão (SP).
Sergio Nahuz, ALL's Director of Industrialized Products, affirmed "in one year, the terminal of Alto Taquari will be the ALL's largest in the segment of containers. The operation is one of those that has grown the most in the industrial sector, with an increase of 26% last year and projected growth of 150% in 2009 ", he informed.
According to ALL's director the new terminal will be responsible for 40% of the total volume of containers between the regions. Today, ALL operates to the ports of Paranaguá, São Francisco and Rio Grande, and with the new structure cargo from the Mid-West will be stored and receive further cooling in the terminal of Alto Taquari, from which it will follow to the Port of Santos (SP).
Until next month, ALL calculates the renovation of 400 wagons will be over in order to meet the increase in the demand cargo called "containerized cargo". The company still reveals a study for the implementation of more terminals, in the regions of Cruz Alta (RS), in Telêmaco Borba (PR), Ponta Grossa (PR) and Araraquara (SP), which should double the loading points spread through the railroad system.
Jose Luis Demeterco Neto, CEO of partner Standard Logística, sees in the operation the possibility of reducing the price of the services. "We are launching a competitive modal, capable of reducing the cost of the freight between 10 and 20%. We calculate we will rapidly get to 2 thousand containers." The forecast is that, in the first three months of activity, the terminal of Taquari should reach a volume of 600 containers a month, and it may get to nearly three thousand units carried every month within a few years. Besides the refrigerated containers, the railroad system with more than one thousand kilometers will also be available for the transport of dry cargo, such as cotton and leather.