TCP completes expansion of largest reefer container yard in South America

TCP, the company that manages the Paranaguá Container Terminal (TCP), has completed the expansion of its reefer yard, an area for storing refrigerated containers, such as those used to transport meat and frozen food. With a 45% increase in the number of sockets, from 3,624 to 5,268, TCP now has the largest reefer yard in South America.

TCP’s commercial, logistics, and service manager, Giovanni Guidolim, explains that “the project to expand the reefer area was designed to serve the meat export market, a major segment within TCP, bringing greater flexibility and storage capacity to our customers”.

In the whole of 2023, of the 482,389 TEUs (equivalent to 20 feet of container length) exported via TCP, 242,199 TEUs, or 50.2%, were frozen meat. In the first four months of 2024, the amount of reefer cargo handled reached 80,650 TEUs.

“Today, TCP is the national leader in the handling of refrigerated containers and holds the position of the largest chicken export corridor in the world, and we expect to expand our participation in this market by offering greater operating capacity, specialized service to the sector, and services of excellence, such as early receipt in the shipment of reefer volumes for export,” Guidolim points out.

Another differential available at TCP is the handling of refrigerated cargo by rail, the only one in southern Brazil to reach the bonded area of a container terminal. “Approximately one in every six containers received by the Terminal uses rail, and the reefer volume has a large share in this movement. This operation is very advantageous because it brings greater reliability, cost reduction and is a more sustainable transportation option for the exporter”, he adds.

Please refer to the chart below for a comprehensive overview of container exports from TCP. The data was sourced from DataLiner.

TCP Container Exports | Jan 2021 – Apr 2024 | TEUS

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

TCP invests over R$70 million in reefer yard expansion and new substation

The construction of the reefer yard took about ten months to finish, beginning in July 2023. Teams from TCP’s engineering, maintenance, operations, and health, safety, and environment departments collaborated on the planning process.

“We divided the reefer yard expansion work into sequenced stages, installing and energizing 450 sockets at a time in each of the blocks that would be modified.
In this way, we reduced the impact of the works on the operation as much as possible,” said the project team leaders, TCP’s engineering superintendent, Aaron Wong, the engineering coordinator, Miguel Bastos, and the maintenance coordinator, Wilson do Pilar Cordeiro Junior.

In order to meet the Terminal’s energy demand following the completion of the expansion of the number of outlets for storing refrigerated containers, the installation of a new gas-insulated power substation, model GIS F35-4, manufactured by General Electric (GE), was completed in September 2023.

While the old system limited the terminal’s distributed load to 10 MVA (Megavotl-ampere), the new one should supply 25 MVA and can be expanded to up to 50 MVA with the installation of a second transformer. In this way, the inauguration of the new GIS substation was essential so that there would be no restriction on the electricity quota to meet the demand for the new sockets, as well as establishing a solid basis for the sustainable development of the Terminal, supporting the operation of electrified RTGs.

Together, the work to install the GIS substation and expand the reefer yard represented an investment of more than R$70 million. “These projects demonstrate how we have put our medium and long-term investment strategy into practice in order to adapt and meet market demands, both in terms of increasing operational capacity and the potential to develop new solutions, making us a benchmark both inside and outside the country,” concludes Wong.

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