Battle for Imbituba rages on

The former has invested in Imbituba Container Terminal (Tecon Imbituba), which has 15m of draught. Its location, just 396km from Curitiba, means that its hinterland also encompasses the mature industrial and agriculture regions of both Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul states. It has strong export potential in refrigerated cargo (mainly frozen chicken and pork), ceramic and floor tiles, fruit (especially apples), machinery and components, and tobacco. Imports include copper, electronics and other consumer goods.

Current capacity is 450,000 teu, although this could be expanded to 970,000 teu in the medium term. The facility is equipped with two, twin-pick super-post-panamax gantry cranes and six reachstackers.

“Because operations have only just begun, it is difficult to give definitive figures on berth or crane productivity. However, Santos Brasil’s terminal operations in Santos regularly achieve hourly vessel productivity of 80 moves,” says Roberto Tortima of Santos Brasil.

Container traffic at the terminal is still modest, with the first seven months of 2012 generating throughput of 8,969 teu. However, the terminal was only inaugurated in March 2008, with Santos Brasil having invested approximately $520m in the facility, which was clearly not impacted by the negative financial crisis of that year.

The contract the owners have with the port authority required it to build the two container berths, pave a 150,000m² stacking area and provide 3000 m² of warehousing, in addition to acquiring all the handling equipment.

In terms of hinterland, the container terminal was designed specifically to meet the needs of the region’s industries, particularly in terms of imports and exports, mainly to the north-central regions of the state of Rio Grande do Sul and to the centre-south area of Santa Catarina. Presently, the volumes involved do not require block train movements, with most of the box flow to and from the port handled by road.

The main competitor at the moment, is the 40,000m² general cargo terminal operated by Libra Terminais, which commenced operations in 2006, with most quayside lift provided by a Fantuzzi Reggiane mobile harbour crane. Investment in the 120,000 teu facility was in the order of $8.5m, with 60% of all cargo handled exported.

However, the Libra group is now involved in a second project, which is to create a 275,000m² container terminal, to be known as Terminal Privativo de Imbituba (TPI), in which it has a 50% stake. This dedicated box terminal should open in 2013.