Growth of vehicle imports at Itajaí Port

The Port of Itajaí has recently started handling vessels unloading General Motors vehicles more regularly. With recent imports, the port has now handled over 26,000 vehicles from the automaker at the port.

The first “test” mooring took place on June 9, 2018, when 500 “Cruise” model vehicles arrived on Panama flagged vessel, Apollon Highway.

Since November 2018, APM Terminal has handled roll on roll off vessels for the import of vehicles every 15 days from various countries including the United States, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.

“We are giving high priority to the quality of roll-on-roll off operations. It is a reference and feature practiced here at the Port of Itajai in relation to all other types of operations we perform, and this qualifies us increasingly to compete within the port market” said the superintendent of the Port of Itajai, Marcelo Werner Salles.

Dredging works

Despite the increase in “roll on roll off” operations, the Port of Itajaí has ​​been facing problems in the channel maneuvering area for vessels using the ports of Itajaí and Navegantes.

Dredging work was recently considered completed by the Government of the State of Santa Catarina but it did not meet the specifications originally outlined by the port authority. A further US$45.5m of investments are required. This value must be paid by the Port of Itajaí.

To avoid further problems, it is expected that the work will be completed with a special dredge, called Back Hoe, which sucks not only the sediments at the bottom of the river but also the larger rocks. The model previously adopted by Triunfo, contracted by the State to carry out the work, pinched the stones of the river bed one by one.

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