Suape will borrow money to finish dredging main channel for receiving superships

The Suape Port Complex has requested permission from the state government to contract a loan to complete the dredging of its main channel, which will raise the draft to 20 meters, 4.4 meters deeper than the current draft.

Following last year’s performance, when it increased net revenue by 11.56 percent and profit by 19.82 percent after investing more than R$ 70 million, the port now wants to complete its most important infrastructure.

The Suape’s dredging total cost will be known within two months, as soon as the budgeting firm provides an updated estimate. When the project was still under the authority of the Federal Government, the most recent figure announced was R$ 400 million.

However, the federal government is changing the legislation and leaving port terminal investment projects to the concession program, which will indirectly assist Suape in reprogramming its investments.

Performance enhancement 

Last year, the solid bulk terminal at the Port of Suape, located in the retro-area of Pier 5, resumed operations after two years and three months of paralyzed activities. The area has 72 thousand square meters of space reserved for handling and storing various loads. Suape’s exports and imports of sugar in bulk and in sacks, solid bulk in general, such as fertilizers and soda, will increase as operations go back to normal.

The first vessel loaded with green petroleum coke to arrive at the Port of Suape was the Malta-flagged ship Lipsi. The product was landed in a quantity of 33 thousand tons.

Suape grew 47% in the segment compared to 2020, according to an estimate made by the Regional Superintendence of the Federal Revenue in the 4th Fiscal Region, which includes the states of Pernambuco, Alagoas, Paraíba, and Rio Grande do Norte. This figure is also 15% higher than that of 2019 when the economy had not yet been affected by the new coronavirus pandemic.

In addition, the Port of Suape performed bed bottom leveling work to restore the original depth of nine berths. High points of clayey-sandy material, known as high-bottoms, will be removed using a tugboat type vessel with a plow attached, restoring the 15.5-meter quota at piers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 that operate containers, general cargo, vehicles, sugar in sacks, wheat, and other loads.

The liquid bulk piers 1 and 2, which handle chemical products, fuels, and oil derivatives, will undergo the same intervention. These services should last three months, being financed by the port’s own resources in the order of R$ 2.6 million.

Also in 2021, the Captaincy of the Ports of Pernambuco (CPPE) approved the Port of Suape to receive Panamax class container ships in 2021, which measure 366 meters in length, 52 meters in width, and have a capacity of approximately 14,000 TEUs. Only world-class ports have the infrastructure to receive this type of vessel.

Suape hired a consortium this week to update its Master Plan, but the duplication of the Abreu e Lima Refinery and the implementation of the Transnordestina project, which will require a terminal on the island of Cocaia to be built, forces the port to prepare itself to house super ships with a draft of 20 meters, according to the company’s president, Roberto Gusmão.

Suape, as a state-owned company, can leverage investments on its own because it has no debt and working capital of more than R$180 million. Gusmão, who is betting on a port handling of more than 80 million tons per year, comments that the controlling shareholders can enter as an investor.

Source: Jornal do Comércio

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