Rumo and CHS Open First Road-Rail Terminal After North-South Railway Completion

Rumo, the largest railway logistics operator in the country, and CHS – the largest cooperative owned by American farmers, ranchers, and cooperatives, diversified in energy, grains, and food – inaugurated the grain road-rail terminal in Alvorada (TO) on Tuesday (09/10). The terminal’s operations will place the state’s agribusiness on the country’s export route via the Port of Santos, the destination of the railway.

The city of Alvorada was chosen for the terminal’s construction due to its strategic geographic location. The city is poised to become the primary grain loading and unloading point for the southern region of Tocantins, and it also has the capacity to handle flows from Bahia and eastern Mato Grosso. The new terminal is now fully connected to Rumo’s expanded North-South Railway, known as the Central Railway Network, with the capability to transport fertilizers to the region and cereals abroad via the tracks leading to the Port of Santos (SP).

“This investment in regional infrastructure will enhance reliability and boost the potential of CHS’s entire supply chain in key Brazilian corridors, making us more competitive suppliers of grains and oilseeds in the global market,” says Horacio Ackermann, Vice President of Agricultural Business at CHS South America.

The new road-rail terminal features infrastructure for grain storage and transshipment, such as for soybeans and corn, and may also handle bran in the future. Operating independently, the terminal functions on a pool system where all clients contribute to a shared stock, maintaining product quality and providing greater competitiveness for the local agribusiness.

“The Alvorada terminal reinforces two strategic pillars of Rumo: firstly, the pursuit of commercial partnerships with clients, in this case, CHS, and secondly, it represents the consolidation of rail transport as a more competitive, clean, and efficient solution for southern Tocantins,” explains Eudis Furtado, Rumo’s Commercial Vice President.

The terminal occupies an area of 70 hectares and has the capacity to handle 1.5 million tons of grain per year. Additionally, the facility includes a railway loading area that can load an average of 12 wagons per hour and up to two 120-wagon trains per day. The terminal is equipped to accommodate up to 120 trucks per day, equivalent to 5,000 tons daily.

North-South Railway

The Alvorada Terminal embodies pioneering spirit: it is the first terminal of the North-South Railway since its completion in 2023, connecting Tocantins to this iconic railway.

Named the Central Network by the concessionaire, the North-South Railway under Rumo’s concession connects Tocantins, Goiás, Minas Gerais, eastern Mato Grosso, and São Paulo to the Port of Santos (SP), covering 3 of the 5 regions of the country: Central-West, North, and Southeast.

By linking to the Paulista Railway Network, the Central Railway Network forms a corridor to the Port of Santos (SP), the main port hub in South America, which handles the export of agricultural commodities worldwide. This makes it a new and more efficient logistical option for moving production from states without sea access, such as Goiás and Tocantins.

In addition to agricultural products from major agribusiness regions, the Central Railway Network will increase the movement of industrial products, fuels, and general cargo in containers to regions previously served only by highways. This will be made possible through Brado, Rumo’s multimodal and “white-label” subsidiary.