For a More Balanced Transportation Matrix

São Paulo – If there’s one sector that seems to be working satisfactorily in the current federal government, it’s the one related to the Ministry of Infrastructure, which has been conducting a remarkable program of concessions and privatizations in the port sector. When combined with auctions for power generation, transmission lines, oil and gas, sanitation, and transportation, these initiatives could surpass the trillion reais mark. These infrastructure investments serve as drivers of progress, leading to job creation and economic growth.

In the port sector, in 2020, according to data from the Ministry of Infrastructure, there was a growth of 4.2%, with the handling of 1.1 billion tons of cargo. In the first half of 2021, this growth was close to 9.5%, indicating that, by the end of the year, the progress will surpass that of 2020, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the beginning of the government in 2019, a hundred adhesion contracts for private terminals have been formalized, with investments valued at BRL 14 billion. In the Southeast, South, and Northeast regions, the process of privatization will bring significant changes to the ports of Santos and São Sebastião in São Paulo, Itajaí in Santa Catarina, and the state-owned companies Companhia Docas do Espírito Santo (Codesa), which encompasses the ports of Vitória, Vila Velha, and Praia Mole, and Companhia Docas do Estado da Bahia (Codeba), which manages the ports of Salvador, Ilhéus, and Aratu.

For the Port of Santos, investments are around BRL 10.5 billion, and for the Port of São Sebastião, they reach BRL 574 million. Just the STS08 and STS08a terminals in Santos represent BRL 1 billion. In the Southern region, at the Pelotas port terminal in Rio Grande do Sul, dedicated to general cargo and wood, the investments reach BRL 16 million. According to the Ministry of Infrastructure, in the last three years, operations have resulted in BRL 185 billion in grants and BRL 156 billion in planned investments, which are record numbers in the country’s economic history.

Investments in the railway sector should reach BRL 100 billion. By the way, a few days ago, the Federal Senate approved a provisional measure that could attract millions of reais in investment to this sector by allowing the private sector to buy and build railways. The provisional measure is now in the Chamber of Deputies, which has up to 180 days to analyze it, and if approved, it will provide legal security for investors. According to the Ministry of Infrastructure, there are already 14 authorization requests that could represent up to 5,300 kilometers of construction and over BRL 80 billion in investment. These numbers are encouraging but only serve to outline a favorable outlook for a few years or a decade from now. For now, what is foreseen for 2022 is again a year as challenging as 2020 and 2021, marked by few investments in logistics infrastructure in general. According to the latest study by the National Confederation of Transport (CNT), 61% of all transported cargo goes through the road network, 21% through railways, 14% through waterways and river and maritime port terminals, while only 0.4% use air transport.

Given this, all we can do is wait for the long-awaited private investments in highways, railways, airports, and ports so that, soon, we will have a transportation matrix that is not so distorted. Balance is everything.

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Liana Lourenço Martinelli, lawyer, postgraduate in Business Management and International Trade, is the Institutional Relations Manager of the Fiorde Group, consisting of Fiorde International Logistics, FTA Transport and Warehouses, and Barter International Trade. Email: fiorde@fiorde.com.br. Website: fiorde.com.br

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