Government Auctions Four New Port Areas, Attracting Over R$2 M in Investments

On Wednesday, December 13, the Federal Government, represented by the Ministry of Ports and Airports and the National Waterway Transportation Agency (ANTAQ), held an auction regarding the lease of four port areas located in the states of Rio Grande do Sul and Alagoas.

The auction marks the end of a year filled with investments in the Brazilian port sector. In 2023, ANTAQ held two auctions that amassed nearly R$1 billion in investments. It’s worth noting that the first round of leases generated R$200 million in grants alone.

Wednesday’s auction referred to two areas at the Port of Porto Alegre (POA 02 and POA 11), one area at the Port of Rio Grande (RIG 71), and one area at the Port of Maceió (MAC 15). The auction raised over R$2 million for public funds.

The first terminal auctioned was RIG 71, an area intended for solid vegetable bulk operations, soy excluded, covering 11 m² with a ten-year term and expected investments exceeding R$27 million. The area was secured by an R$1 million grant from AC Vita Serviços de Armazenagem LTDA.

Following that, terminals POA 02 and POA 11 were auctioned out. The former involves a dedicated area for inland navigation and cabotage operations with expected investments of over R$16 million. Serra Morena Corretora Ltda won the contract for R$2,000.

As for POA 11, investments in areas dedicated to bulk goods, either vegetable commodities or mineral bulk, should cross the R$5 million threshold. Unifertil Universal de Fertilizantes LTDA secured the area for an R$50,000 grant.

The last terminal auctioned was MAC 15, located at the Port of Maceió (AL). Intermarítima Portos E Logística S/A won the auction with a grant worth R$1 million. The auctioned area will be used to handle and store solid mineral bulk, especially salt. The contract has a term of five years, and the expected investments are R$7.2 million.

Economic Development

The Minister of Ports and Airports, Silvio Costa Filho, and the Director-General of ANTAQ, Eduardo Nery, observed the tender. Nery explained that the Capital Expenditure (Capex) values and expected investments stipulated to explore the port economically efficiently. He also argued in favor of adopting the Landlord Port model.

In this model, the state provides the port’s infrastructure, while the private sector offers the superstructure and manages port operations through leases.

“We know that often the port does not have the conditions to plan the investments for efficient port exploration. That is why we adopted the landlord model with public areas within the port being explored by private entities,” he said.

Future Auctions

Nery also spoke about the agency’s forthcoming challenges. According to the Director-General, leases are planned in various port areas of the country, as well as private concessions for access channels and new bids for waterways.

“We look at a greater challenge next year, with R$9 billion to R$10 billion in national port areas, as well as the concession of the Paranaguá access channel. We already have four areas in Recife whose bids will be launched at the start of next year, in addition to VDC 04. We also intend to advance the process in Itaja and anticipate holding public hearings to discuss future bids for waterway concessions, which is a priority for our agency,” he said.

It is worth noting that the VDC04 terminal, located at the Port of Vila do Conde (PA), was withdrawn from the auction on the last day of the 8th due to the need to tweak the figures involved in the competition. After deliberations and pursuing the utmost transparency in the leasing process, ANTAQ decided to enter the area in a public consultation period.

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