Santos Brasil and Libra go beyond terminals
Valor Econômico
As they get to the maturity of their main business, the two largest container port operators in Brazil - Santos Brasil and Libra, respectively - now bet on logistics. The goal is to gain muscle with a network of assets that allow the companies to sell an integrated solution to the client, going beyond the ship loading and unloading operations. Both groups have created specific divisions in recent years. Today, the logistic arm already represents 18% of the earnings of the Santos Brasil holding and 16% of Libra. The global earnings of both companies was nearly R$ 800 million (US$ 500 million) last year.
Besides a market need, which prefers to speak to only one interlocutor to manage the entire logistics chain, the logistics operating under the same umbrella eliminates inefficiencies - and the additional costs - that arise when the process is distributed into a network of different companies, says the Commercial officer of Santos Brasil, Mauro Salgado. "Our great emblematic example is the contract with Mercedes-Benz", says the Executive. The company already imported through the port terminal of Santos Brasil, in Guarujá, and it closed a contract six months ago for the managing its flow of cargo involving the plant in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo known as ABC Paulista, including the assembly line of trucks.
With a portfolio that includes two export enclosures in the Region of Baixada Santista and a dry port in Campinas (SP), Libra Logística plans to grow 10 times in earnings in a period of five years, getting close to R$ 1 billion (US$ 625 million). "The group has two main avenues of growth. The port area, with the mission of consolidating the sector, and the logistics as the platform of flow of foreign trade", says the President of Libra Logística, Eduardo Leonel. Besides the organic growth, the jump will occur through acquisitions and mergers. "The main focus includes the bonded areas so we have a very robust system, with no more than one day of road trip", says Lionel. For him, there is no doubt there will be a time when the logistics activity will achieve the same level of relevance the port sector has in the group.
According to Salgado, the percentage of the division in Santos Brasil has not only been greater because the port business has grown a lot and maintained the participation. This year, the three terminals of the company (Tecon Santos, the largest in the country; Tecon Imbituba; and Tecon Vila do Conde) should handle 1.6 million TEUs (Twenty-foot equivalent units), growth of nearly 14% compared to last year. Nearly the entirety is operated at the Tecon Santos, whose current installed capacity is 2.1 million TEUs.
That scale of operation only finds something similar in Brazil at the very port of Santos, with the new multi-purpose projects under construction - of Embraport and of Brasil Terminal Portuário (BTP), both with international partners with global presence in the operation of containers (Dubai Ports and APM Terminals, respectively). The start of the operations of BTP is scheduled for the second half of 2012. In the first phase, it will have capacity for 1.2 million TEUs. When the work is concluded, the offer will increase 30%. As regards the unit of liquids of the terminal, it will be at full steam in the first phase, with a capacity for 1.3 million tons/year.
On the other side of the margin, in Guarujá, it is being built the private terminal of Embraport, with capacity to handle 2 million TEUs and store 2 million cubic meters of liquids. Currently, the company is ordering 12 portainers. "In another 15 days we should conclude the bidding to define the company", said the Manager of engineering, Wilson Lozano. The linear wharf is 1,100-meter long and there will also be two mooring piers for vessels carrying liquid bulks. The total area of the undertaking is 803 thousand square meters. The first phase of operation will begin in 2013.