ALL creates company to enter the dispute for container market
O Estado de S. Paulo
América Latina Logística (ALL), Brazil's largest railway company, announced yesterday the creation of a new logistics operator to work in the container sector. The company, called Brado Logística, resulted from the merger with Standard, a company specialized in the carriage of refrigerated cargo in the South, Southeast and Midwest. The new operator will not depend on the management and administration of ALL, which has 21.3 thousand km of railroads. The company will take over the management of the container terminals in Porto Alegre, Uruguaiana (RS), Araucaria (PR) and Tatuí (SP). It will also be responsible for the contracts of container transportation signed with ALL.
Besides, Brado will have the infrastructure of Standard Logística, which is present in São Paulo, Mato Grosso, Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná and Santa Catarina. It has five intermodal terminals, five logistics complexes for refrigerated cargo and a dry port in the interior of São Paulo. Before the merger, Standard and ALL had already executed partnerships in five road and railroad intermodal terminals. Two of them flowed the production from the industries to the Port of Paranaguá (PR), two to the Port of Rio Grande (RS) and one for Santos (SP). Together, the terminals handled a monthly average of 3 thousand containers.
With the merger, the new company will have R$ 1.5 billion (US$ 882.4 million) in assets. In the first five years, it will invest R$ 1 billion (US$ 588.2 million) in wagons and locomotives, which will be used on the routes with potential container cargos. The resources will also be invested in improvements and adjustments of the permanent tracks of the railroad system. Brado will be liable for a pioneer project in Brazil, which is the carriage of Double Stack wagons.
The new operator will not only transport, it will also offer a series of services for the clients, from the factory to the port or consumer center - or vice versa. With the structure it gains, Brado intends to attract medium- and small-size clients that are currently to the margin of the railway transportation. One of the main goals of the company is achieve up to 50% of all the operation of containers in the ports where ALL operates today - Santos, Paranaguá, São Francisco (SC), Rio Grande and the dry port of Uruguaiana. According to the concessionaire, the total market in its area of operation is of nearly 2.6 million containers a year. The participation of ALL in the market amounts to 2% only.