08/04/2008 11h28
Train takes the place of trucks in Santos
Folha de S. Paulo - 08/03/2008
Two locomotives at full steam drag the 73 grain-loaded wagons until the exportation corridor, at
Ponta da Praia, in the port of Santos (SP). The come and go of trains has become more frequent as the predominance of the fleet of up to 13 thousand trucks every day in the port area seems threatened. Portofer, a mini railroad company responsible for distributing the wagons through the port of Santos, beats operating records and shows it can solve one of the largest bottlenecks of the largest port complex of the country: the reliance on trucks. The return of the railroads is important, mainly in light of the perspective of the federal government increasing the cargo handling capacity in Santos to beyond 200 million tons. Unprecedented numbers released by ALL (
América Latina Logística) - responsible for the operations of Portofer- and by
MRS Logística indicate growth of 30% in the volume of cargo delivered at the port by the trains. Data of Codesp (São Paulo State Docks Company), the administrator of the port of Santos, also confirms the trend of change in the matrix of transportation that serves the port. In the first half of 2007, 38.8 million tons of cargo went through the port area; among the items, soy, corn, pulp, fertilizer, manure and containers. Last year, the participation of the railroad in the transportation of such volume reached 17.6% of the total volume. Taking into consideration the first half of 2008, according to data gotten by
Folha with exclusiveness, railroad transportation has already reached the mark of 23.6%, six percent more than the same period of 2007. Between 2006 and 2008, a relatively modest allocation of funds for the benefits gave Portofer a new impulse. R$ 32 million (US$ 20.4 million) were invested basically in the recovery of the railroads. From that amount, R$ 9 million (US$ 5.7 million) will be used still this year, 90% in the recovery of tracks and sleepers. The new cycle of railroad investment, now guided towards the port, may support the migration of the cargos to the railroad. The main project in progress, sponsored with resources of the PAC (Growth Acceleration Program, of the federal government), is the reform of the eight kilometers of the Perimeter road of the right margin. The new express way of the port will finally separate the train track from the avenues. It means an investment of R$ 58 million (US$ 37 million).
