Rotterdam in Brazil bulk port deal

The Port of Rotterdam Authority has agreed to help develop a deep water port in the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil.

The Port Authority, the state of Espírito Santo, the municipality of Presidente Kennedy and project developer Terminal Presidente Kennedy (TPK) signed an agreement in Vitória, Brazil for the development of the new industrial port, Porto Central, which will handle dry bulk, oil, gas, offshore services, and general cargo.

“The greenfield port still has to be built and will be located in the extreme south of Espírito Santo state, to the north of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro,” the Port of Rotterdam said.

The first phase is the construction of a 1000-ha industrial port. This year and 2013 will be used for approaching potential customers and obtaining the necessary permits.

The Port of Rotterdam said that it is entering into a cooperation agreement with TPK, a group with experience in the mining and offshore industries. The port’s main contribution will be its expertise and knowledge in the field of port management.

The cooperation agreement will likely be converted into a joint venture if a number of essential conditions (such as permits and initial contracts with clients) are met.

“Porto Central will be operated in accordance with the [our] tried and tested landlord principle," stated the Port of Rotterdam. "The owner will develop the infrastructure and lease the land to the terminal operators and other port users, who will in turn invest in their own business-specific suprastructure.”

The port's foreign strategy is geared towards joint ventures and new international participations, such as that realised in recent years in the port of Sohar, Oman.

The port was approached in 2010 by the Brazilian government to review a comprehensive strategic study into remodelling the Brazilian port sector. It opened an office in São Paulo earlier this year.

The bulk port sector is continuing to grow quickly in Brazil. Recently it was claimed that congestion at Santos could be relieved by the expansion of Terminal Marítimo da Ultrafértil (TUF), part of CVRD (Vale).

If, as hoped, the environmental licence is issued this month, the available land will be handed over in September and work would commence by the end of the year. The expansion will take TUF from 18.5-ha to 80-ha.

TUF’s Managing Director Ricardo Buteri has stressed the importance of the rail link, which will cater for exports of agribulks (mainly sugar and ethanol). Road will continue to handle imported fertiliser, given the short distance [around 7 kms] to the factories at Pólo de Cubatão.

A parking area will be provided within the terminal itself, to avoid truck queues on the main Piaçaguera-Guarujá highway. Fertiliser volume is forecast to more than double in the medium term, from 2.5 Mtpa to almost 6 Mtpa.

Export consignments will use the existing rail link between the port of Santos and the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais. The acquisition of 148 new locomotives and 2680 wagons at a cost of US0M will be the biggest outlay involved in the project, with Ferrovia Centro-Atlântica being the rail service provider. A further 10,600m of track will be laid within the terminal itself. The number of berths in the terminal will increase from one to three.

CVRD will also undertake maintenance dredging of the Piaçaguera Canal to return it to a depth of 12m, which is regarded as being sufficient for the moment, although the terminal does not rule out deepening this to 15m if traffic requires it.

Another Santos development, this time for iron ore, may be in doubt. The Federal Public Ministry (MPF) recently began a civil action asking the Justice Ministry to suspend whatever authorisation was given to allow work to begin at a site in Largo Santa Rita.

The MPF argues that building a terminal in this particular area would destroy one of the most important ecological sanctuaries in the Americas, used by thousands of migrating birds, including 20 endangered species such as the emblematic scarlet ibis.

“No-one is against progress, but there are right and wrong ways to make it,” said Dr Fábio Ornos, professor of zoology at São Paulo State University and director of a leading Brazilian conservation group, Fundação Grupo Boticário.

The strip of land, between the islands of Barnabé and Bagres, was initially the proposed location of Complexo Brites, a container handling facility promoted by Triunfo Participações e Investimentos. However, at the end of last year, this project was withdrawn and a proposal was put forward to build an export iron ore terminal (Vetria Mineração) by Triunfo in association with ALL and Vetorial Mineração.

The facility would enclose a water area of 1.9 km2 and the piers would have a capacity to load 27.5 Mtpa of iron ore from Maciço do Urucum in Corumbá (MS). Investment is put at Reais1.5B, but Triunfo has not said when construction work will start.

Brazil’s environment agency, Ibama, had already given the project prior approval. The MPF has asked for the environmental licence to be cancelled and an embargo placed on cutting or removing vegetation.