Revenue up 21% in 2020 for Rio de Janeiro ports

Companhia Docas do Rio de Janeiro (CDRJ), the port authority that manages the Ports of Rio de Janeiro, Itaguaí, Niterói and Angra dos Reis, ended 2020 with a 21% increase in revenue. The turnover of approximately R$ 630 million represents the highest billing ever and is the largest growth during the last 10 years out of a succession of consecutive increases of 19.4% in 2017 (second-highest increase in the period), 16.8% in 2018 (third-highest increase in the period), and 13.6% in 2019 (fourth-highest increase in the period).

According to the figures released by the Market Relations and Planning department, revenues were higher than in 2019 by R$ 108 million. The record amount is due to a combination of factors: the sustaining of operations during the pandemic, the resilience of container operators during the crisis, the recovery of iron ore handling after a fall in 2019, the successful negotiations with commercial partners, and the sharp increase in the price of iron ore in reais.

As in almost all businesses that were unable to stop operations at the height of social isolation measures, the company had to quickly adapt its work processes in partnership with port operators to ensure continuity of operations. Thus, with the sustained demand for iron ore (the main product exported through the CDRJ ports), the total volume handled by the company grew by 7% compared to 2019.

At the iron ore terminals, which account for approximately 72% of the product volume handled at the ports managed by CDRJ, there was a recovery in the movement that had fallen in 2019, after a drop in production from the mines in the southeast after the Brumadinho mining tragedy. Iron ore handling in 2020 was about 3% higher than in 2019.

Container terminals managed to recover after the drop in handling in the second quarter of the year and moved more consistently in the last quarter of 2020, reaching a 7% increase in the consolidated volume for the year compared to 2019. This growth at the end of the year was due to the fact that these terminals sought other types of cargo, in addition to their main container cargo.

The other terminals, whose main cargo is neither containers nor iron ore, presented a cumulative growth of more than 30% in the volume handled in relation to last year, driven by the 56% growth in the handling of pig iron. Thus, in the consolidated volume of 2020, the movement of ports managed by CDRJ will be close to 55 million tons, an increase of 7% above the result of 2019.

The approximate growth of R$ 108 million in relation to 2019 revenue is mostly concentrated in the ore terminals, which increased by 66% in relation to last year. According to the director of Market Relations and Planning, Jean Paulo Castro e Silva, “this increase is due to the friendly agreement with one of our main commercial partners to pay the difference in relation to the contractual minimum not reached in 2019, the increase in the movement in relation to last year, and the great appreciation of iron ore in reais as a result of the combination of the increase in the value of the commodity in international markets and the strong appreciation of the dollar against the real”.

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