Brazil to see hidden island boxes rise from the sea

For, according to Delmo Pinho, the under-secretary of state for Transport for the Rio de Janeiro state government, a new container terminal looks set to rise from under the sea over the next few years if a Reais600m ($285.5m) port expansion plan – the “hidden island” scheme – from the Rio state government goes ahead.

The lack of space for expansion of the port of Rio de Janeiro could be overcome by a land fill project covering some 2m sq m of land that is currently one metre below the sea’s surface, near the Ilha de Pombeia island.

Mr Pinho told Port Strategy: “People in Rio de Janeiro are now very excited about the prospect of developing this new area, located near the island of Pombeia. The aim is to fill in the land and for it to become part of our expansion plan and then it will be offered up – via a tender process – for port operations, almost certainly for containers.

“Phase One of this expansion plan is the dredging down to 15 m and the tender process for this will start very soon.”

The transport secretary added that several international port operators have shown an interest in the “hidden island” project, as well as the operators of the two existing box terminals in Rio de Janeiro, Multi-rio and Libra Terminais’s T-1 facility.