Authorization by Santos to receive new Panamax vessels will benefit whole country

The homologation acquired this month by the Port of Santos to operate the New Panamax vessels – 366 meters long and with a capacity of about 14 thousand TEU – will benefit other Brazilian ports qualified to receive this type of vessel, since it will attract new routes for the country.

The Port of Salvador (BA) has been approved since 2018. For Carlos Autran Amaral, CEO of Companhia das Docas da Bahia (CODEBA), the new operational parameters obtained by the Port of Santos are beneficial. “The approval of the Port of Santos is the starting point for Bahia to integrate the South American commercial route of the New Panamax and establish itself as a more commercially viable option for players in the international market”, explains Amaral.

Demir Lourenço, CEO of Tecon Salvador, a container terminal operated by Wilson Sons in the port of Bahia, also considers the change positive. “Authorization is important to maintain and attract new routes, serving importers and exporters from Bahia and other states, such as Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Tocantins, Pernambuco, and Sergipe, that can operate through the port of the Bahian capital”, he highlights.

The news was also well received in Rio Grande (RS). In October, with the approval of the new draft at the port of Rio Grande do Sul, the container terminal operated by Wilson Sons confirmed its capacity to service two 366-meter vessels simultaneously. “With a strategic location and state-of-the-art equipment, Tecon Rio Grande is going to be a cargo-concentrating terminal in the Southern Cone. Today, it already receives the main maritime lines that connect the Mercosur region with the most important foreign ports in Europe, Asia, and North America”, points out Paulo Bertinetti, CEO of the terminal.

Receiving larger and larger ships is already a reality. Since July 2020, when the first Post-Panamax vessel, 330 meters long (LOA) and 48.34 meters wide (berth), docked at the Bahian port, Tecon Salvador started to have service regularly. Tecon Rio Grande has received large vessels since 2012. Last year, ships up to 337 meters long and 48 meters wide passed through the terminal.

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