Dredging to change the profile of Santos
Valor Econômico
The dredging for the deepening and widening of the waterway access of the port of Santos, foreseen to start in 30 days and to be concluded by November 2010, will change the logistics of the Brazilian maritime traffic as it will allow ships of up to 9 thousand TEUs to enter the estuary and operate in its terminals. The current limit of containers per ship is of 4.5 thousand TEUs. The impact in the port won't be small: it will have its operating capacity increased by 30%, compared to the current 110 million tons. The project will increase the depth from the current 13 meters to 15 meters, while the navigation channel will be increased from 150 meters to 220 meters in the narrowest points.
By making these announcements yesterday at the execution of the agreement for the dredging with Consórcio Draga Brasil, Minister Pedro Brito, of the Special Secretariat of Ports (SEP), foresaw the new stage of Santos should also create a new paradigm in the maritime transportation. "Ships of greater size will be allowed to board and depart direct from Santos, which will work as a hub", he said. In this kind of operation, part of the unloaded cargo may be reloaded in ships of smaller ships, with access to ports of lesser draft. Minister Pedro Brito, based on studies of the World Bank, is sure there will be no lack of cargo. "The bank foresees that in the next 15 years the cargo demand for Santos will increase 158%", he said.
The agreement entered into with Draga Brasil, at the value of R$ 199.5 million (US$ 110.8 million) will be in part (R$ 128 million/US$ 71 million) in the National Dredging Program, with funds from the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC, in Portuguese). It foresees the removal of 13.62 million cubic meters of residues for the deepening. Another 7.65 million cubic meters will be removed in the maintenance dredging, during three years, at the cost of R$ 71.5 million (US$ 39.7b million) to be released by the Codesp, the port manager.
The consortium is formed by EIT - Empresa Industrial Técnica, DTA Engenharia, Equipav Pavimentação e Comércio and Chec Dredging. The three dredges that will come from China for the work belong to the Chinese Chec. The biggest one of them, according to João Acácio de Oliveira Neto, CEO of DTA, named Xihai Feng, of 17.5 thousand cubic meters of capacity, is also a carrier. "It was built in 2009 and it is among the most modern equipment of the world", he said. The other two have capacity for 13.5 thousand cubic meters and 5 thousand cubic meters, respectively.