São Paulo –Brazil needs around R$ 44 billion (US$ 19,7 bilhões) in private investments for the next ten years to expand and modernize the current port terminals and also to build new ones. Meanwhile, the bureaucratic obstacles and lack of infrastructure create losses of over US$ 5 billion per year to the country in goods export and import.
The information is provided by Wilen Manteli, president of the Brazilian Association of Port Terminals (ABTP, in the Portuguese acronym), who delivered the workshop “The new regulatory framework of the Brazilian ports”, this Wednesday (16th), at the head office of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, in São Paulo. At the event, he was welcomed by the organization’s CEO, Michel Alaby.
Manteli recalled that, currently, Brazil only has 34 public ports and 129 private terminals, and the latter moved almost 70% of the cargo in the country. In 2013, Brazil moved 931 million tonnes of goods via ports.
“For 2014, we are projecting to reach 960 million tonnes and, in 2015, we should reach one billion tonnes”, he pointed out. “There is a sense of urgency in creating new terminals”, he said.
For the president of ABTP, however, it is also important to focus on building new terminals in regions such as North and Northeast. “There are 50 tonnes of soy and maize that come from the country’s central region and they should be transported via Pará, Maranhão, which are closer, rather than by truck to Santos, Paranaguá and Rio Grande”, he said.
He also criticized the excessive paperwork required for the construction of new terminals in the country. “There is an excess of public bodies that interfere in the port activity. There are many bodies and not one that is definitive. One of our proposals is to unify these sectors. If we had the Secretariat for Ports, which handles the public policies of the ports, and the National Water Transport Agency (Antaq) to oversee and regulate, it would be enough”, he said.
According to the executive, the port situation could only be improved by the privative initiative “To develop (the port system), the option is always private terminals, public ones suffer too much intervention”, he pointed out.
Manteli also stressed the need for the businessmen to mobilize so that improvements will be made in the sector’s regulatory framework, as, according to him, the businessmen kept away during the passing of law 12.815/2013, which introduced new rules for the ports and their operations. “We are starting a process of regrouping the business entities. We want to introduce changes to perfect the regulatory framework.”
*Translated by Rodrigo Mendonça
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