Brazil remains set on opening Port of Santos for bids in 2022

Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture expects to put the Port of Santos up for bids in the second half of December, said Bruno Estáquio, the executive secretary of the governmental body, on Sept. 27. He announced the plans just days after the Federal Government approved the design of the country’s most prominent port complex’s bidding project.

The bidding documents, which include the draft notice, were sent on Friday to the Federal Audit Court (TCU). The government has been talking to court personnel to try to speed up the process to the point of holding the tender still this year, said Eustáquio.

The rapporteur of the process at the TCU is Minister Bruno Dantas. Last week, the government established under which circumstances the privatization of the Port of Santos should occur. After an open tender, the plan is to transfer 100% of the government’s share to private ownership in a concession model.

The government expects competition over the asset. At the end of August, the G1 website reported that the concession period of the port authority of Santos had been extended from 35 years to 50 years.

See below the top five most imported and exported products in containers via Port of Santos in the first seven months of 2022. The data is from DataLiner.

Top 5 Exports via Santos | Jan – Jul | 2022 | TEUS

Top 5 Imports via Santos | Jan – Jul | 2022 | TEUS

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

Eustáquio, who participated on the second day of Rio Oil & Gas, said that in the next few days, he would be meeting with 23 potential stakeholders interested in the port’s ownership, including banks, investment funds, operators, and companies already present in the port complex.

These meetings, said him, will help understand the general profile of the companies to tweak the commercial proposal, as well as the concession project. Nonetheless, according to him, the “backbone” of the auction will follow suit to the privatization model of Companhia Docas do Espírito Santo (Codesa), held in March.

The government’s plan, in this case, involves opening up the Port of Santos to various business initiatives and expanding and optimizing the port’s operation, including the arrival of cruise ships.

For the secretary, submitting the documents to the audit court TCU marks the beginning of a new phase in the concession’s journey. “We are being contacted by several interested parties, including national and foreign agents, and we will begin to have a thermometer [of market appetite] from now on,” the secretary added.

Another focus of the Ministry of Infrastructure is the merger of two state-owned logistics planning companies: the Planning and Logistics Company (EPL) and Valec, which operates in the railway sector. The merger will result in Infra S.A. The government’s idea is to make the two companies a single state-owned organization that will help the planning and logistics across the transport matrix.

The boards of both companies will meet on Friday, Sept. 30. For Bruno Eustáquio, the union of the two companies will increase the efficiency of both operations. The new company will also have a new board focused on innovation and digital services.

The Ministry has a list of railway construction authorizations that total R$ 200 billion in investments, according to Eustáquio. According to the government’s long-term plans, the idea is to make rail transport correspond to 31% of the country’s matrix, as opposed to the current 17%. Currently, 65% of the transport matrix corresponds to road transport.

Source: Valor Econômico

To read the full original article, please go to: https://valor.globo.com/brasil/noticia/2022/09/28/governo-quer-licitar-porto-de-santos-este-ano.ghtml

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