With Ferroeste as its trump card, Paranaguá wants to become Paraguay’s main port again

Paraguay’s growing agricultural production – especially soy and beef –  and the continuing water crisis that is affecting river levels is attracting the attention of Port of Paranaguá, which is eying the possibility of once again becoming the main option for shipping Paraguayan goods to the sea.

The interest is justified. In the last decade, soy production in Paraguay increased by 42%. The country is already the third-largest exporter of grain in the world, after Brazil and the USA. In recent years, Paraguay has become the sixth-largest exporter of beef in the world. With the difficulty of transporting all this production by lower-than-usual rivers, Paraguay is looking for other alternatives.

“The water crisis set off the alarm and made Paraguay look once again to Paranaguá as an option for shipping its products”, highlights Luiz Fernando Garcia da Silva, CEO of the Port of Paraná. According to him, thanks to the investments being made in the port infrastructure, the Port of Paranaguá is an interesting logistical solution for the neighboring country, and this will become even more evident with the Nova Ferroeste railway.

The railroad will connect Maracaju, in Mato Grosso do Sul, to Paranaguá, with a railway branch to Foz do Iguaçu. The road will enable direct train transport from Paraguay to the coast of Paraná, an option that is 30% cheaper than the current road alternative. Nova Ferroeste should begin construction in 2022 and be completed in 2029.

“Today, only 20% of Paraguayan cargo destined for the foreign market goes out to sea through the Port of Paranaguá. The expectation is that this percentage will rise to 60% with Nova Ferroeste”, says Luiz Henrique Fagundes, coordinator of the state railway plan.

At TCP (the Paranaguá container terminal), the handling of Paraguayan cargo has already grown. “From 5 to 10 containers handled on average per month until last year, we moved to a monthly movement of between 600 and 700 containers this year”, informs Thomas Lima, institutional director of TCP.

Source: Gazeta do Povo

To read the full original article, visit the link:

https://www.gazetadopovo.com.br/parana/paranagua-quer-voltar-a-ser-o-porto-do-paraguai/

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