New development plans for Santos Port are approved

The new development plans for Santos Port were approved on Tuesday, July 28, by the Infrastructure Ministry (Minfra).  It approved the new Development and Zoning Plan (PDZ) for the port and published Ordinance No. 1,620 in the Official Gazette this Wednesday (07/29), which states it will allow the port modernization to be implemented by strategically planning the occupation of public areas for the next 20 years. The implementation of the plan will increase the capacity of the Santos complex by approximately 50% by 2040, reaching 240.6 million tonnes.

The instrument was developed over the last year by the Santos Port Authority (SPA), based on guidelines for operational efficiency and port-city integration. The new PDZ updates the 2006 version to ensure an efficient flow of cargo.  The need to do this had been identified in the Master Plan, MInfra’s macro planning instrument, published in April 2019, with a schedule for updating port planning.

The new PDZ for the port encompasses 100% of the cargoes in the region that deal with the port, the consolidation of areas for cargo clustering, and the increase in railway transportation. In terms of integration with the city, the plan includes solutions for interference with road and rail access and the destination of the Valongo pier for the handling of passengers on cruise ships.

The container facilities will have one of the largest capacity increases of all cargo – a 64% increase from 5.4 million TEU to 8.7 million TEU, with a new dedicated terminal in the Saboó region. However, all types of cargo will benefit from increased capacity by 2040. Here are the highlights:

– Solid vegetable bulk: up 37% to 95.3 million tonnes
– Liquid bulk: 40% increase to 22.4 million tonnes
– Mineral unloading bulk: 74% increase, to 16.5 million tonnes
– Pulp: 49% growth, to 10.5 million tonnes
– Two berths for direct unloading, between Alemoa and Saboó

In compliance with the guidelines of the federal government to increase participation of railroad in the transportation matrix, the increase of the modality at Santos should be an almost doubling, to 86 million tonnes, thus increasing the percentage participation of railroad at Santos from 33% to 40%.

The new plan will be implemented immediately, with changes in the type of cargo carried out as the current contracts expire. There will be new leases, an expansion of areas, in addition to the expansion of railroad infrastructure. The estimate is that R$9.7 billion will be needed between the next five to ten years divided into investments in terminals with current contracts (R$2.5 billion), investments foreseen in eight new leases to be made as of 2021 (R$5.2 billion), and railroad access works (R$2 billion).

The following chart shows the movement of cargo in the Port of Santos on a monthly basis since 2017:

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