Odebrecht negotiates terminal in Santos
Valor Econômico
The Odebrecht group is in the final stage of negotiations to take over the control of Embraport, a company that has been building, for two years, one of the largest multipurpose port terminals of the country, located in Santos, where there are investments of more than US$ 500 million foreseen. The main shareholder of the terminal is currently the group from the State of Espírito Santo, Coimex, whose main activity is the international trade of commodities. Coimex holds 66.6% of the interest in the undertaking.
As it was verified by Valor, Odebrecht will have Dubai Ports World (DPW), one of the three biggest maritime logistics operators of the world, headquartered in Dubai and present in dozens of countries, as a partner in the business. The group from Bahia and DPW have had commercial relations for a good time. Odebrecht is the leader of the consortiums that are building two containers terminals of DPW: the one of Callao, in Peru, and Doraleh, in Djibuti, Africa.
Embraport was set up in 1998 by Coimex in order to implement a terminal for containers, solid bulk (vegetables) and liquid bulk (alcohol) on the left margin of the port of Santos, between the rivers Diana and Sandi, in an area of 800 thousand square meters. With a 1.1 kilometer dock with two piers, it features covered warehouses, railroad yards and parking place for tractor-trailers.
Odebrecht is already fairly familiar with the project. In December 2007, the consortium led by Construtora Norberto Odebrecht (CNO), which also includes the Carioca and Constremac building companies, was chosen to perform the works of implantation of the terminal. Another factor that would justify the entrance in the undertaking is that its subsidiary company ETH, owner of sugar and alcohol plants, plans on exporting these products within some years. This way, the group would guarantee a logistics base in Santos.
At a first stage, Embraport was dimensioned to operate 1.2 million containers, 1.1 million tons of solid bulk and 2 billion liters of alcohol a year. The initial goal of Coimex was to put up a terminal capable of operating 10 million tons of cargo a year - from solid and liquid bulk to cars, getting to1.9 million containers. The car operation was abandoned. Originally, according to prior information posted in the website of Coimex and Embraport, the project was budgeted at US$ 400 million, 60% of which concerned civil works and 35%, acquisition of the cargo handling equipment. The new budget of the works that slowed down on account of the international crisis is US$ 550 million.