Breakbulk South America: Brazil’s Ports Bursting at the Seams

Brazil desperately to needs to expand the capacity of its public ports. They are struggling to cope with a huge increase in imports and exports, panellists at the Breakbulk South America Congress in Sao Paulo said December 6.

The value of foreign trade in South America’s largest economy has quadrupled to US$400 billion in recent years, putting considerable strain on terminals.

Transferring cargo from one of Brazil’s inland waterways to a seagoing vessel can take up to five days, said Antonio Ricardo de Albuquerque, Executive Manager for International Sales at MAN Latin America. This is forcing the truck manufacturer to move more units by road than by water despite the higher costs. “Brazil stands to lose billions of dollars if we do not speed up infrastructure development,” he warned.

Investment is underway, countered Fernando Fialho, the head of Brazil’s ports regulator ANTAQ. Projects at the Port of Rio de Janeiro promise to double operating capacity within the next two years.

But Marcelo Pereira Malta de Araujo, President of terminal operator Grupo Libra, said that public ports could achieve savings of 30 percent to 40 percent just through more efficient management of existing capacity.

Brazil’s port users could also avoid delays with more planning about where they will land cargo, said Flavia Garcia, project manager at freight forwarder UTM Overseas, Inc.

The government is planning reform that will make Brazil’s public ports operate more like private companies, but this requires new legislation, said ANTAQ’s Fialho.

But some fear port infrastructure had slipped down the government’s list of priorities in the face of other challenges. “Whenever the president talks about infrastructure, it’s airports for the World Cup in 2014,” noted MAN’s Albuquerque.