WorldCargo
BRAZIL: PORT DEVELOPMENT
news
provided at several key Brazilian Tecondi’s commercial director Luís Last year Santos Brasil spent
ports if they are to be able to berth
Araújo has revealed that the choice for
Reais120M on acquiring Tecon
and depart fully loaded.
two quayside gantry cranes is likely to
Imbituba (TI) from rivals Libra
“I think the bigger vessels will
be between ZPMC and Kalmar, but
Terminais and another Reais45M
come sooner rather than later,”
other options remain open
on purchasing Convicon, the con-
said Richard Klien, the chairman tainer terminal in Vila do Conde,
of Santos Brasil, with facilities in process of ordering six superpost- near Belem. And both of these
Santos, Imbituba and Vila do Panamax cranes. The company’s acquisitions, say Sepúlveda and
Conde. “And, in my view, I think director of operations Antônio Klien, will be also pushing ahead
the worldwide financial crisis will Sepúlveda said that the company with their expansion plans.
bring these larger vessels to the would order three cranes soon and TI has increased its draught
ECSA and Brazil even quicker.” three more by the end of the year, and will do so again before the
In preparation, Santos Brasil is bringing the number of quayside year is out and will be in the mar-
undergoing a series of expansion gantries to 18. “Despite our share ket to buy four quayside gantry
plans and equipment upgrades. In price fall in recent months we are cranes by the end of this year. The
Santos it has just completed the in a good financial position with aim is that TI will become a hub
expansion into the adjacent area no debt and our investment plans terminal for the south of Brazil
known as Tecon 4 and is in the are continuing,” said Sepúlveda. and River Plate region. More than 2.67M TEU were handled in the Port of Santos in 2008, up
“We are just now finalising 5.95% on the 2.52M TEU handled in 2007. South America’s leading container
Part One of our Reais283M ex-
port was followed by Buenos Aires, which handled 1.87M TEU, up 5% over
pansion programme for Imbituba,
2007 despite a punitive government export tax. In third place came Brazil’s
which will see an additional berth
number two port for containers Itajaí, which handled 694,000 TEU, despite a
and also dredging down to 10.5m
terrible flood in the state of Santa Catarina towards the end of the year that
killed more than 130 people and destroyed two container berths. Of that total,
from the previous 9m and once
around 392,000 TEU comprised full containers, with about 40% of that traffic
that is completed we can be much
made up of reefer cargo, mostly chicken exports. The Itajaí figure includes the
more aggressive as we move for-
traditional port of Itajaí and also the new MSC-backed facility of Portonave,
ward,” said Sepúlveda. across the Itajaí-Açu River, which escaped the ravages of the flooding
And Convicon is also going to
be upgraded as it bids for deep sea quayside gantry cranes might be represented by import taxes would
cargo for Manaus, which Klien delayed until after the Intermodal be covered under the Reporto
says will be fed by barge services South America show in April “to legislation to encourage imports
in the future, and “main gateway” take stock of the market and to that can also benefit Brazil’s ex-
status for the whole of the try and negotiate a better price.” port drive.
Amazonas region. He revealed, however, that the In any event, the extension of
Convicon has just signed a deal would most likely be struck Tecondi’s existing pier will allow
contract worth Reais8M with ZPMC or Kalmar, and that its two mobile harbour cranes to
(US$3.64M) to bring in a new 40%-50% of the cost normally operate in a much bigger area than
mobile harbour crane and, accord- previously.
ing to Klien, this could herald a
Santos Brasil’s commercial director
bright new future of transhipment
Antônio Carlos Sepúlveda says that
Decision delayed
the giant container handler’s
for the facility. The new Gottwald
investment plans are continuing
Araújo said: “We have stopped ne-
crane will arrive in April and be gotiations with the equipment
operational in May. Santos Brasil providers because we want to see
that it will be the only post- what is happening in the market.
Panamax crane with 100t capac- We will probably make a decision
ity operating in the northern re- on what kind of crane by mid
gion of Brazil. April, if not definitely by the end
of the year.
More storage “We should have 15m draft for
Libra Terminais, which operates the navigation channel after the
Terminals 35 and 37 in Santos, is PND dredging and then we could
also gearing up for the next gen- go to around 14 m for Tecondi.
eration of vessels and it will ben- We are still trying to work out
efit not only from the Santos how the credit crunch will affect
dredging programme, but also us. Our exports should be pick-
from Teval, its recently-opened ing up now that the Real has de-
Reais100M container storage de-
pot on the outskirts of Santos that
should ease congestion. The com-
pany is moving forward with an-
One for the courts
other Reais100m upgrade, which
will involve buying more handling The war of words between exist- will allow them to stay within the
equipment. ing container terminal operators law, even with the strictest inter-
Tecondi, meanwhile, is also in Brazil and those who want to pretation of the law.
carrying out a yard and equipment enter the market on new sites “However, in my opinion all
upgrade. Luís Araújo, the compa- looks destined for the courts later three facilities - Portonave,
ny’s commercial director, said that this year. Embraport and Itapoá - should be
the civil works part of the facili- For it is then that Hamburg allowed to operate as Law 8063
ty’s Reais180M upgrade would be Süd will start running tests on its stipulates that terminals can move
completed by the end of this year, state-of-the-art container termi- their own cargo and third party,
but the process to order two new nal at Itapoá, located some 50 km not or third party, as Abratec is
from the existing port of São Fran- insisting.”
cisco do Sul. Manteli says that Special sec-
To be named Tecon Santa retary of Ports Pedro Brito has al-
Catarina, the new US$120M, ready stated publicly that all three
300,000 TEU deep water facility existing projects can operate and
will become the regional hub for certainly the goodwill that Ham-
Hamburg Süd and will lead to a burg Süd earned after the terrible
major redrawing of many carri- flooding of Itajaí will not have
ers’ ECSA port strategies. done its cause any harm.
Hamburg Süd’s withdrawal of Portonave says it is within the
some services from other ports law because its owners export suf-
(especially, probably, Sepetiba), will ficient quantities of frozen cargo,
allow other carriers to concentrate and now it has also opened a reefer
their own flows there. But on top warehouse, Iceport, which has in-
of that the Itapoá facility will also creased its reefer exports still more.
draw the ire of Abratec and rival Abratec says Portonave by-
operators such as Santos Brasil. passed the law and is open only
The President of Abratec, because the law has been hood-
Sérgio Salamão, and directors of winked. Itapoá is widely consid-
Santos Brasil have already indi- ered to be the test case. Although
cated that “there will be a legal Embraport opens first, it is a trad-
appeal against Itapoá when it ing company and should have
opens on the grounds that it will enough “proprietorial cargo.”
be breaking Brazilian port law. A number of carriers with port
terminal operations still feel
Supporting view “locked out” now, perhaps none
However, Wilen Manteli, the more so than CMA CGM, whose
president of Brazil’s National Port terminal operating arm, Terminal
Association (ABTP), says that Bra- Link, has been trying to get a foot
zil has an urgent need for more in the door of container terminal
port facilities and that, in his opin- operations in Brazil for more than
ion, Itapoá will not be breaking three years.
any laws. Two years ago Terminal Link
www.steelbro.com
“Hamburg Süd is a partner tried to buy into the Tecondi ter-
with Battistella, which is an ex- minal in Santos, but did not offer
porter of forest products, so this enough for the shares. a74
24 March 2009
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