11/14/2008 14h53
Santos to choose new responsible for dredging until the end of the year
Valor Econômico - 11/14/2008
The company or consortium that will make the deepening dredging of the port of Santos will be known on December 23, the date of the opening of the envelopes with the respective bids. The investment amounts to R$ 167.2 million (US$ 72.7 million), from the Program of Acceleration Growth (PAC). The public notice of the international auction of the dredging is published today in the Federal Official Gazette, the third one under the new rules of payment per results, measured before and after the operation. Until the end of January the Special Secretary of Ports (SEP) expects to conclude the administrative stage of the auction, for the immediate begin of the works, which will last 12 months. The choice criterion will be the lowest price. In the next days, SEP will release other auction for Santos, this time destined to remove two submerged rocks that jeopardize navigation in the estuary of Santos. "The port of Santos, with the new dimensions, will have its operational capacity improved by at least 30% and our intention is get to 160 million tons within the next five years", affirmed Pedro Brito, Head-minister of the SEP to Valor. In this dimension, according the minister, "Santos will become the biggest "hub port" of the Southern hemisphere". The deepening dredging of the port of Santos, which will take the average draft from 12 to 15 meters and the estuary channel from 150 to 220 meters will have multiple impacts, from the dimension of the berth, purchase of new equipment and the operational capacity of the terminals, which will be able to receive ships of the 'post-Panamax' generation, with 280 meters of length and capacity of 70 thousand tons of gross size. Brito foresees that Santos will give other dimension to the maritime traffic of the Brazilian coast, also with help of an electronic monitoring system of the ships, the VTS.
