Codern comes up with solutions to cargo jams at the Port of Natal

Companhia Docas do Rio Grande do Norte (Codern) is negotiating using Petrobras’s former Santos Reis Tank Park to set up a parking lot for trailers, as well as a temporary storage space for containers. The idea is to avoid traffic jams around the Port of Natal, a common situation near the melon harvest period, blocking all traffic in the region. While the space concession is signed, Codern is working to organize the logistics for cargo arrival.

In 2022, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil’s leading fruit-exporting state, should export around 360,000 tonnes of melons abroad, according to projections by the state’s Fruit Growing Executive Committee (Coex). Such a figure represents a 20% growth compared to last year’s crop and is a harbinger of a significant movement of trucks in the port region between September and April. Fábio Queiroga, president of Coex, says that six thousand containers will pass through the Port of Natal throughout the season.

Queiroga considers positive the possibility of using the old tank park as a parking lot to relieve the logistics of loading cargo. In addition to Coex, Codern also counts on the support from the State Secretariat for Economic Development of Rio Grande do Norte (Sedec-RN) and the Municipal Secretariat of Urban Mobility of Natal (STTU) in the negotiations with Petrobras, a company for which the Federal Government granted the land in 1979.

However, a legal and environmental imbroglio involving Petrobras and the Armed Forces – the space owner – is a problem to be overcome. “That area struck us as very important,” highlights Brigadier Carlos Eduardo da Costa Almeida, CEO of Codern. “It is an area that we are fighting for and that belongs to the Brazilian Air Force and Navy and which is currently under the custody of Petrobras because it is contaminated,” he amends.

The CEO of Codern says that the strategy is only to use the area where the administrative headquarters of the old park was located, far from where the fuel tanks were. “We had a meeting with Secretary Silvio Torquato, trying to show him and the Idema personnel that not the entire area is contaminated; it is only part of it, which is the part where the tanks were. The administrative zone is not contaminated. So, it would be fundamental to have the uncontaminated area available for the Air Force and Navy to negotiate with Petrobras or for Codern to negotiate a possible lease, it would be fundamental,” says Carlos Eduardo Almeida.

Since the end of August, there has been an intense flow of trucks around the neighborhood of Ribeira because of the shipment of fresh fruit through the Port of Natal. Because of the delay at the beginning of the harvest due to the volume of rain, the trend is for fruit shipments to go uninterrupted until the beginning of April, said Fábio Queiroga.

According to Carlos Eduardo, the CEO of Codern, the state company would not be able to build a parking lot since the zone is located inside a bonded customs area. “Port of Natal customs are very restricted. The Federal Revenue Service does not allow us to give access to truck drivers,” he explains.

With no definition regarding using the Tanking Park, Codern devised a solution to avoid the accumulation of trucks in Ribeira: implementing an intelligent system for scheduling cargo loading operations. Port operators will employ an application that also relies on driver cooperation. In this manner, the Port can determine the time of the cargo entry window and sends a notification to the trailer driver’s cell phone, which must conform to a pre-determined distance radius.

Source: Tribuna do Norte

To read the full original article, please go to: http://www.tribunadonorte.com.br/noticia/codern-tenta-liberaa-a-o-de-parque-de-tanques-para-estacionamento/547547

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