The future of the santos port waiting for definition on destatization

Twelve months of discussions, perspectives, criticisms and analysis by the Federal Court of Auditors (TCU) have gone by with the deadline set for December of last year. However, if it were to depend on the new Minister of Ports and Airports, Márcio França, the privatization of the Port of Santos, whose investment forecast was R$ 30 billion, should not be started.

On the other hand, Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) defends privatization, so much so that he has already made it clear that he will not give up easily in handing over the Santos complex to the private sector. In the opinion of specialists, the picture is quite complex, involving numerous variables and interests. That is, it needs to be carefully evaluated before hitting the hammer.

“This discussion is always loaded with ideological or, at least, theoretical biases. In practice, it must be remembered that port operations in Santos have been 100% privatized for over 20 years: they are carried out by operators, tenants and terminals for private use. What is under discussion is the governance model of the port administration (in this case, the Santos Port Authority, or SPA)”, states the consultant, engineer and economist Frederico Bussinger, remembering that, even before the creation of the Ministry of Ports and Airports , the TCU had interrupted the privatization process.

This occurred at the December 13 plenary session, due to three requests for view. One of the observations was that the dominant model in the world’s relevant ports, is one of public administration and private operation. In Brazil, says Bussinger, a private administration experience is being carried out at Companhia Docas do Espírito Santo (Codesa), which will be maintained and should be evaluated periodically, following TCU guidelines.

In the case of Santos, the process was rescheduled for the March 8 plenary session. And it should come with a new face, since the elected government wants to evaluate privatizations in other ports.

See below the handling of containers at the Santos Port (exports and imports) from January 2019 to December 2022, according to data from the DataLiner platform developed by Datamar.

Container Handling – Port of Santos | Jan 2019 – Dec 2022 | TEU

Source: DataLiner (Click here to request a demo) 

Bussinger does not have an opinion regarding the port’s infrastructure: of whether or not it will be harmed if privatization really does not happen. “It is difficult to say yes or no. If we look retrospectively, as the port is now five times larger than it was in the early 1990s, it is not possible to state that the infrastructure was an insurmountable obstacle to its development. As for the private port administration model, the only Brazilian experience did not last six months”.

While still within accordance to the consultant, the modeling sent to the TCU brought surprises. One of them is that 75% of the announced total used as investment are resources for maintenance and running costs.

Source: The Tibuna

To read the original report, visit: https://www.atribuna.com.br/noticias/portomar/futuro-do-porto-de-santos-a-espera-de-definicao-sobre-desestatizacao

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