08/28/2008 15h35
Port improvement to require US$ 25 billion in funds
Valor Econômico - 08/28/2008
Brazil will need more than 105 mooring berths and 22 million square meters of area in order to meet the demand of cargo around 2017, when 1.3 billion tons should be handled the Brazilian ports. In 2007, the activity in the ports amounted to 755 million tons. Among port and retroport areas, such infrastructure will have an estimate cost of US$ 25 billion. In the last six years, the Brazilian ports had 42.7% of increase in volume, with the additional receipt of 226 million tons of cargo that represented an annual average increase of 6%. "The Brazilian port activity grows nearly 45 million tons every year, that is, a port of Santos every two years", declares Marcos Antonio Vendramini Júnior, partner of
VKS Partex Engenheiros Consultores. Based on history data and market expectations for the next years, Vendramini foresees that (,) the Brazilian ports will be handling more than 800 million tons of solid bulks, 260 million tons of liquid bulks and 200 million tons of cargo in general, including cargo in containers in ten years. These values would represent an increase of 547 million tons in total, compared to 2007. According to the history data found by the consulting company, between 2002 and 2007 the ports of Tubarão (ES), Itaqui (MA) and Itaguaí (RJ) were responsible for 60% of the Brazilian activity of solid bulks. "The trend of flow by this type of cargo will take place by means of the ports of the North and Northeast or through ports that are well-served by high performance railroad connections, due to the increased sensibility of these products to the cost of transportation", says Vendramini. For containers, whose annual average of growth in the last 15 years was 10.5%, reaching peaks of 14% and minimum performance of 3%, a concentration in the ports of São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul was seen. They handled seven out of 10 TEUs in Brazil, a reflex of the industrial development of such states. The trend of expansion would lead to the growth of the container activity in the country. The distribution of the 105 new berths - "keeping the institutional conditions and legal parameters in force" - would be divided 50% for ports of the North and Northeast, 35% for the Southeast and 15% for the South.
