Marimex prepares to operate maritime terminal with R$247m investment

Previously unknown outside the logistics industry, Santos-based company Marimex prepares to set foot in the water after winning, in December, the auction to operate a maritime terminal in the Port of Santos, which already has a customs house for containers but lacks access to the pier.

As a surprise for the industry — and itself — the company got the concession of an area off the pier in the Paquetá neighborhood. Marimex will have up to four years to turn it into a terminal for handling paper, pulp and general cargo with an investment of R$247 million.

It was the only logistics operator in the first phase of port auctions, given the widespread skepticism about the economic crisis, the conditions of the tender and the lease characteristics of Paquetá. It also made a significant investment for narrow area that will only start operating in the fifth year of the contract – yet it is strategic for Marinex.

The company owns an area of 11,000m2, which is located behind the leased lot, and it can be useful to support loading and unloading operations. "We will not be just a pier. We have road transport, customs terminal, customs terminal, clearance, storage warehouses and do direct management in the customer’s plant," Marimex president Antonio Carlos Cristiano said in an interview with Valor, adding that he never thought the company would be alone in the bidding process or even win.

With terminals becoming more specialized, the space for general cargo in Santos has declined, he says. “Today there’s need for this kind of cargo," Mr. Cristiano.

The R$247 million investment will be made with long-term financing from private-sector banks — the executive rules out resorting to the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES). The company has no net debt and posted revenues of R$350 million in 2015, down 17% compared with 2014, while its EBITDA totaled R$55 million, a 20% decline in the same period, due to the fall in imports.

It will be a solo flight, Mr. Cristiano said, denying rumors that some pulp-and-paper producers would be behind the project in order to ensure the cargo or that Marimex would be seeking a partner. At least for now.

The challenge will be big. The lessee will have to provide a minimal cargo handling of 1.6 million tonnes of pulp and paper annually; otherwise it will be subject to penalties. Cristiano said the company will "reassess" the study to confirm the viability of numbers. "There was very little time from the day the tender’s rules came out to the bidding date," he said. The process took 43 days.

The studies that supported the bidding notices’ minutes of the port leasing program were prepared in 2013 by Estruturadora Brasileira de Projetos (EBP), authorized by the government to conduct the analysis.

Marimex was the winner of the auction with the only offer to explore the area for 25 years, paying R$12.5 million for the concession. It was the lowest bid in the first stage of port leases held after the Ports Law, of 2013. The other two areas auctioned at the same time — one for grains and another for pulp — were bought by the consortium made up by trading companies Cargill and Louis Dreyfus for R$303 million, and by pulp producer Fibria for R$115 million, respectively.

"It’s a very expensive project. I’ve calculated the concession value with a proposal of 5% of the investment," said Mr. Cristiano, who talked to Valor at Marimex’s temporary office located on the Xavier Pinheiro Street, at the pier’s rear, where in the coming months the company will begin construction of its own headquarters, budgeted at R$25 million. The building will be in front of the customs terminal for containers, with 97,000 square meters, which is now Marimex’s main business.

Almost half of the R$247 million to be invested will be spent in structural measures, such as the expansion of Paquetá’s current wharf toward the interior of the ship channel, a project of almost 35,000m2, and the increase of its depth. The current depth at the site is of nearly 7 meters, not enough to accommodate ships. According to the bidding notice, the pier should be adapted for vessels with minimum draft of 11 meters.

Marimex is a family-owned company, but it’s currently forming a board amid a professionalization process. The company was founded in 1927 as a customs handler named A. Melchor during the coffee boom. In 1955, the father of Mr. Cristiano, Osvaldo, joined as a partner and four years later bought the rest of the company, renaming it as Marimex.

The first port area was leased in 1989, before the Ports Act of 1993 which established the lease model. In 2000, the company won the first bid to operate for 20 years, until 2020, a lease of 42,000m2 in the port. In December, it requested to the Secretariat of Ports to advance the renovation of its contract for another 20 years, until 2040.

As the ring road to be built at the port would pass through the terminal, the port authority awarded areas outside of the lease contract in exchange for a portion of the land bought by Marimex, totaling 97,000m2 of the customs terminal.

• Tweetar