Santos Port Authority reveals new managers of Internal Railroad

The three railway companies approved to integrate the consortium of firms that will be responsible for managing the Internal Railway of the Port of Santos (Fips) are Ferrovia Centro Atlântica S/A (VLI), MRS Logística S/A, and Rumo S/A. 

SPA published on Monday, the 17th, a call for companies on the Port of Santos website.

From now on, companies have up to 45 days to present an operational transition plan aimed at ensuring the safe and uninterrupted transfer of rail operations at the Port of Santos. After that, the transferee must implement the transition plan within a maximum period of 90 days. SPA’s estimate is to sign the contract later this year.

For 35 years, the new assignees will be in charge of running, maintaining, and expanding the rail operations. They will also be required to invest R$ 891 million within a maximum of five years, starting when the SPA approves the executive projects.

The railway capacity of the Santos port complex is close to saturation, with 94% utilization. Therefore, its expansion is essential to efficiently address the future flow of cargo, which is projected to double within 5 to 10 years.

Today, the railway capacity of the port complex is 50 million tonnes per year and needs to reach 115 million tons/per year to appropriately serve the volume that flows from external railways into the Port of Santos (MRS, Rumo, and VLI).

After the executive projects are approved, the work should start immediately. The primary interventions are:

• Rail yard between channel 4 and Ponta da Praia, equipped with three railway tracks to serve the pulp terminals;
• Viaducts to eliminate the level crossing in the Channel 4 region;
• Pedestrian walkways between channel 4 and Ponta da Praia;
• “Ballon” loop, wo viaducts and footbridge in the Outeirinhos region;
• New road leading to the 2nd entrance on the right bank of the Port of Santos in Saboó.

The establishment of an associative contract, in which the transferee companies will cooperate in management based on administrative and operational self-regulation sharing costs in a not-for-profit stance, is new to Fips. Throughout the contractual term, the assignees will make public calls every two years to guarantee new members’ entry.

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