Maersk backs presidential office recommendation on STS10 auction

Maersk, one of the main beneficiaries of the Presidential Chief of Staff’s Office recommendation to liberalize the STS10 auction, said it supports the position taken by the office.

The Danish multinational said it has defended that position since the beginning of the auction’s design and believes the federal government’s guidance is aligned with what it considers essential for the process.

The company said it supports conducting the terminal auction under clear, equal and legally secure rules. In its view, that is the path to a competition based on technical criteria and to attracting investment.

On Thursday (May 7), the Presidential Chief of Staff’s Office sent a technical note to Antaq, the sector’s regulator, recommending the removal of restrictions on shipping lines that want to participate in the auction, which still has no date set.

The recommendation represents a radical shift in the auction model. Until now, the alternatives under consideration were those proposed by Antaq and Brazil’s federal audit court.

Both had supported a two-phase auction. Antaq intended to restrict, in the first round, the participation of shipping lines that own terminals in Santos, such as Maersk. The court went further and suggested eliminating the possibility of any shipping line submitting a bid.

Take a look at the container throughput for both inbound and outbound trade at the Port of Santos over the last three years, based on Datamar intelligence:

Container Throughput | Port of Santos | Jan 2023 – Mar 2026

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

STS10, considered the mega terminal of the Port of Santos, calls for 6.4 billion reais in investment and is expected to expand container-handling capacity at Brazil’s main port complex by as much as 50%.

Source: Folha de São Paulo

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