Port regulator insists on two-stage auction for STS10

According to Datamar data, both exports and imports at the Port of Santos increased in the first five months of the year compared with the same period a year earlier, rising 3.3% and 7.3%, respectively. The chart below compares the long-haul operations recorded in recent years:

Port of Santos | Exports vs. Imports | Jan 2023-May 2026 | TEUs

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

In a filing submitted to the federal government, the agency also pressed for greater clarity on the bidding model officials want to pursue and warned that structural changes could put a 2026 auction at risk by forcing a fresh review by the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU).

The filing, signed by Antaq Director-General Frederico Dias, who is also the case’s rapporteur, responds to a technical note from the Special Secretariat of the Investment Partnerships Program (SEPPI), which reports to the Presidential Chief of Staff’s Office.

According to the document, the government instructed the agency to lift participation restrictions for shipping companies, as well as for the container terminal operators already active at the Port of Santos—provided they divest their stakes in existing terminals within the port complex.

Antaq had initially proposed a two-stage auction in which companies already operating in the region could bid only in the second round, and only if no bidders emerged in the first. The Federal Court of Accounts went a step further, recommending the same restriction be extended to shipping companies as well, to prevent maritime carriers from vertically integrating into terminal operations.

Antaq argues that the Chief of Staff’s Office document offers input for its analysis but doesn’t, on its own, change the regulatory decision the agency’s board already approved. If the government wants a different model, the agency maintains, that guidance needs to be spelled out clearly.

“There’s a clear need for a more clearly formalized position from the Granting Authority—one that may call for a new explanatory act or supplementary measure capable of unambiguously reflecting the government’s guidelines on this matter,” the filing states.

Antaq will now wait for the government’s response before moving forward with the tender. Ports and Airports Minister Tomé Franca told Valor the government is working to hold the auction later this year, and that the tender notice would need to be published by September to stay on schedule.

In the filing, the director-general stresses that the agency’s technical staff reaffirmed Antaq’s clear legal authority to set restrictions, limits and conditions in tender documents to prevent market concentration and anti-competitive practices—authority the staff described as exclusive, non-delegable, and protected by the agency’s regulatory independence.

“The issue would therefore touch on Antaq’s regulatory autonomy directly, and proposals that weaken competition oversight should be rejected,” the note states.

The matter was also reviewed by the Federal Attorney’s Office attached to Antaq, which concluded that the government’s recent statements should be treated as input for the agency’s technical staff to weigh, while it falls to the ministry, as the Granting Authority, to factor those elements in if it considers revising its own decisions.

The rapporteur, however, takes a somewhat different view than the technical staff. While the staff maintains the Chief of Staff’s Office note doesn’t change the approved regulatory decision, the rapporteur suggests that if the government lays out clear public policy grounds without overstepping Antaq’s legal authority, the agency should take that guidance into account. Even so, any resulting change to the auction model would still require a new vote by Antaq’s board.

Antaq also noted that the minimum concession fee proposed by the Chief of Staff’s Office falls outside the project’s economic and financial feasibility study (EVTEA)—it’s a public policy call by the Granting Authority that doesn’t require technical sign-off from the agency. In its own technical note, the government updated that figure: following a revision of the project’s economic and financial assumptions, it’s now estimated at R$1.044 billion, split between a fixed and a variable concession payment.

Asked for comment, the Investment Partnerships Program referred questions to the Ministry of Ports and Airports, which said in a statement that it had received the documents submitted by Antaq. “The material is currently under review by the technical staff of the National Ports Secretariat,” the ministry said.

Source: Valor International