Private operators gravitate toward Rio Grande Port

Private operators at the Rio Grande port complex, Rio Grande do Sul, are betting on modernizing their facilities. Companies handling bulk cargo and containers are investing in boosting capacity and operational efficiency.

One such company is Wilson Sons, which operates the container terminal Tecon Rio Grande. Tecon serves over 3,000 clients and has the capacity to handle 1.4 million TEUs along its 900-meter quay.

The terminal’s storage capacity is 25,000 TEUs, and it can accommodate New Panamax vessels—the largest vessels available in Latin America—measuring 366 meters in length and 52 meters in width.

According to Paulo Bertinetti, CEO of Tecon Rio Grande, agribusiness products account for 52% of the terminal’s total volume, around 800,000 TEUs per year. Among the main exports are tobacco, rice, wood, pork, and poultry, the latter making up 11% of exports in the first half of the year—a drop due to heavy rains in Rio Grande do Sul in April and May.

“Typically, poultry accounts for 16% to 19% of our exports, but logistical and production challenges stemming from the weather disaster have affected this,” Bertinetti explains.

Regarding pork exports, the Tecon Rio Grande president mentioned a project to resume a logistics operation that previously involved shipping pork to Russia in containers that returned with fertilizers.

“It was a very interesting logistics project, which was halted due to the war in Ukraine. But now, there’s a chance of launching a new service with a shipowner that would connect through Morocco to revive this trade,” Bertinetti added.

Tecon Rio Grande invested R$ 1.4 million this year to enhance operational efficiency. Among the initiatives is the Terminal Operations Center (COT), a strategic move that creates an intelligence cell to plan yard and ship movements more efficiently through data analysis.

The infrastructure includes a videowall that displays key performance indicators (KPIs) and offers real-time operation insights and automation management. The goal is to modernize the area and unify governance across all systems, boosting productivity.

The investment also included the establishment of the Maintenance Control Center (CCM), which aims to accelerate real-time asset monitoring using technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) and increasing data visibility for decision-making.

Soybean processor and biodiesel producer Bianchini is investing R$ 100 million in its facilities in Rio Grande, where it operates a port terminal and a factory. The funds will go toward building new conveyor belts, scales, and structures, which are expected to double the company’s ship-loading capacity.

The work is expected to be completed in time for the 2024/25 summer harvest. In Rio Grande, Bianchini has a static capacity of 1.2 million tonnes and can currently load about 2,600 tonnes per hour. With the investments, this volume will increase to 5,000 tonnes per hour.

“Today, we can load a Panamax-class ship in 36 hours. With the upgrades, we will be able to complete the job in just 24 hours,” explained Antônio Carlos Bacchieri Duarte, Bianchini’s port operations coordinator.

During the floods in May, a Bianchini grain warehouse in Canoas, located in the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre, suffered structural damage. The site has a capacity of 400,000 tonnes and was storing 100,000 tonnes of soybeans at the time. Part of this volume was salvaged and transferred to Bianchini’s Rio Grande unit.

Bianchini markets 2.5 million tonnes of grains per year, representing 14% of Rio Grande do Sul’s harvest.

In addition to serving as a grain export hub, Rio Grande port is also a key entry point for fertilizers that replenish agricultural production in Rio Grande do Sul and other states. One of the main operators in this segment at the complex is Yara, which maintains a modern production, mixing, and dispatch facility.

Yara began full-scale operations at the site in 2023, with a capacity of 1.1 million tonnes per year of granulation and production and 2.2 million tonnes per year of mixing and bagging, following a R$ 2 billion investment in the Rio Grande unit completed in 2021.

“At this site, we have the capacity to unload more than 3 million tonnes of fertilizer inputs and produce over 1 million tonnes of granulated products, in addition to dispatching 2 million tonnes. The difference between what we produce and what we dispatch comes from imported products from other Yara plants,” explains Lucas Elizalde, the company’s Operations Director for the South Region.

In 2022, Yara made another R$30 million investment in its first ship loader system in the country. This equipment allows bulk fertilizer loading directly onto ships and enables transshipment between vessels, speeding up pier operations and expanding the range of locations served from the Rio Grande unit.

“We can load 18,000 tonnes onto each of the ships, which are used for both coastal shipping, meeting the demands of other states, and for exports to Argentina,” said the director.

Elizalde mentioned that another R$100 million was invested in 2023 for improvements and maintenance at the new operations in Rio Grande, and the same amount will be invested this year.

The company also has two other units in the state. One is in Porto Alegre and is almost entirely supplied by inputs transported from Rio Grande via the Lagoa dos Patos and Lago Guaíba waterway. The other is in Cruz Alta, in northern Rio Grande do Sul, where over 50% of the products are transported by rail.

“From Rio Grande, we are able to transport 350,000 tonnes to our units via waterway and 150,000 tonnes via railway,” Elizalde noted.

The chart below uses DataLiner data to show the combined total of container exports and imports registered at the Port of Rio Grande between January 2022 and June 2024. Readers may request a demo using the link below.

Rio Grande Port Exports and Imports | Jan 2022 to June 2024 | TEU

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

Due to the flooding in Porto Alegre, the unit in the state capital, located along the banks of the Gravataí River near Canoas, was submerged and remained out of operation for two months. “We began recovery efforts in July, but operations have yet to return to full capacity,” the executive said.

During this period, the Cruz Alta plant ramped up production to compensate for the losses. However, according to the Operations Director for Yara’s South Region, fertilizer deliveries were affected by the floods “in May, June, and to some extent in July.”

Source: Valor Econômico

Click here to access the original text: https://valor.globo.com/empresas/noticia/2024/08/23/porto-de-rio-grande-atrai-operadores-privados.ghtml

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