New grain hopper in Port of Paranagua to centralize train unloading

With an investment of R$ 592 million, the new grain hopper, better known as Moegão, will centralize the unloading of trains arriving at the Port of Paranaguá. The area where the structure will be installed will cover almost 600,000 square meters, enough for the simultaneous unloading of 180 wagons in three independent lines, which will allow for a 63% increase in unloading capacity, from 550 to 900 wagons a day.

Both the constructive project and the work are being managed by a consortium formed by four engineering companies, whose winning proposal was presented in October last year after two years of elaboration of the basic project.

The project, which was included in Governor Ratinho Junior’s announcement package this Tuesday (07), considers the current reality and the need to expand the participation of the railway modal, but also looks to the future of logistics in the State and on the national scene. It aims to directly meet the increased demand caused by Nova Ferroeste, which will expand the railway structure in the interior of Paraná by hundreds of kilometers, with branches to Mato Grosso do Sul and Santa Catarina, increasing the logistical importance of the Port of Paranaguá.

In addition to the exclusive hopper, the accesses to the Terminals in the East Region of the Port of Paranaguá will be restructured, optimizing the cargo reception capacity in both road and rail modes. The work involves new transport galleries to take the products unloaded in the hopper to the logistics terminals in the port area.

The interventions are important for the growth of the port and are added to other works carried out, such as the demolition of Pedra da Palangana, with an increase in the draft for approaching larger ships. With the new structure, the tendency is for new records in the annual port movement of the ports of Paraná, which in 2022 reached a new unprecedented mark with 58.4 million tons of cargo loaded and unloaded, an increase of 9.6% compared to 2019 after four years in a row of record marks.

Of the 58.4 million tons of cargo handled by the Ports of Paraná last year, 20.95% took place by rail, an increase of almost one percentage point compared to 2021. Among the 12.2 million tons of products that arrived or left in wagons, 80.4% were sugar, 35.39% corn, 20.86% soy, 20.09% soy bran, 14.03% containers and 11.76% derivatives oil.

For 2023, the expectation of the operators of the terminals of the Port of Paranaguá is a 40% increase in exports of solid vegetable bulk in the first quarter. The estimate is that around 7 million tons of soy, soy bran, corn, wheat and sugar leave the port between January and March, against 5 million tons of products in the same period of the previous year.

After the conclusion of Moegão, the expectation is that more than 24 million tons of grains and bran leave annually through Paranaguá, increasing to 50% the participation of the railway modal in the transport of cargo that passes through the port. The work will also generate a 30% saving in transport costs, reduce environmental impacts with 73% less CO2 emitted.

The local community and those traveling through the port region by car should also feel the positive impacts after the completion of the work. This is because Moegão will reduce from 16 to five crossings between railway lines and city streets, with a direct effect on reducing traffic interruptions and the risk of accidents.

POTENTIAL – According to the governor, Moegão will increase around 30% of the loading and unloading capacity of grains through the Port of Paranaguá. “The train will arrive with full capacity for unloading without the need for dismemberment, which will change the speed of loading and unloading, further improve the efficiency of the Port of Paranaguá and collaborate with transit mobility, reducing the junction stretches between railways and highways”, explained Ratinho Junior.

According to the Director of Engineering and Maintenance at Portos do Paraná, Victor Yugo Kengo, the work at Moegão was highly anticipated by the port community. “It will bring many benefits to the city and to the logistics operation of the Ports of Paraná, centralizing all rail receipts from the eastern export corridor. The trains will stop interconnecting individually at each terminal and will start unloading at a single point, increasing the productivity of the entire logistics chain”, he said.

The director informed that, with the conclusion of the bidding process, the deadline for the company to prepare the executive project is four months, when the deadline for execution of the work begins. “After the completion of the structure, our expectation is to balance the scale, reaching 50% of transport by road and 50% by rail. With that, we are also preparing to receive demand from Nova Ferroeste”, he concluded.

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