Agrovia do Nordeste ends operation in Suape

Agrovia do Nordeste, controlled by OTP (Odebrecht’s logistics segment) is delivering the sugar terminal back to the Port of Suape, due to Odebrecht’s request for judicial recovery. Installed at pier 5 with an investment of R$130m, the terminal started warehousing services in 2016 and started operating fully in 2017.

“The company requested a rebalancing of the contract to the federal government and obtained a precarious permission to move other types and grains because sugar movement alone was not enough to make the terminal viable. But the evaluation took so long that Odebrecht’s order from RJ came, the company lost its momentum, and is handing us the terminal,” said Suape’s president, Leonardo Cerquinho.

Now, the expectation is to make some kind of transition contract so that the terminal does not stop running and that a simplified bidding will be made. “It’s a shame, because when the terminal arrived it made perfect sense. But there is criticism of these concession models that they need to be more agile and flexible to meet the market demand,” defends Cerquinho.

The president of the Sugar and Alcohol Industry Union of Pernambuco (Sindaçúcar-PE), Renato Cunha, says that the sector was very active in attracting the sugar terminal to Suape, which worked as a complement to the Recife Port terminal and says that industries in the sector are willing to cooperate so that there is no discontinuity. “With Odebrecht giving up, other companies may be interested, including through a plant pool so there is no interruption,” he suggests. Agrovia’s terminal has the capacity to handle 750,000 tons of sugar per year, focusing on refined and bagged sugar. Agrovia had plans to invest R$79m to build five silos and modernize its conveyor belt to move maize, malt, barley, rice, and non-GMO soybeans, but the project did not end up happening.

Source: JC

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