<\/a> However, many in Brazil wonder whether there is sufficient independent port regulation in place to prevent monopoly practices from taking root and for price abuse to take place. Although not entirely dismissive of such concerns, Mr C\u00f4rte points out that this is not something that simply affects Brazil. Nowadays, the whole world is having to live with mergers between some of the main players in the navigation segment, he notes.<\/p>\nTo prevent irregularities from creeping in, FIESC not only monitors the situation of terminals throughout the state, but also has a Transport and Logistics arm that frequently brings together representatives of ports and users to discuss the main challenges facing the industry, then searches for solutions, including looking at tariff issues and other aspects such as structure, efficiency, investment, management and availability of lines.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need efficient regulatory agencies that have an adequate structure and independence in place to defend users\u2019 interests,\u201d he says. \u201cIn Brazil, the competition authority CADE has been reasonably effective and plays a key role in identifying potential threats.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a sensitive issue and one that does require a careful technical [analysis], while avoiding further highlighting the legal and institutional fragility of the country. But we believe that it is also very important that the user occupies their role of being the main protagonist in denouncing and avoiding abuses and defending their interests,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
Aggressive competition<\/strong><\/p>\nIn the very recent past, there has been aggressive competition between Portonave and Itaja\u00ed. In 2016, for example, Portonave saw throughput grow by 34% to 905,962 teu from the previous year\u2019s figure of 673,817 teu. In the same period, APM Terminals\u2019 operation at Itaja\u00ed registered a 37% drop to 196,226 teu, having handled 309,922 teu in 2015.<\/p>\n
In the first ten months of 2017, Portonave reported throughput of 775,333 teu, generated by an average of 60 vessel calls per month. According to Osmari de Castilho Ribas, superintendent-director of Portonave, this represents year-on-year growth of around 3%.\u201cFactors contributing to this result are good infrastructure as well as a well trained and dedicated workforce,\u201d he says. \u201cAs a result, we expect to end this year with total traffic similar to that posted last year, which was 910,000 teu.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Itaja\u00ed, an APMT spokesperson notes that the terminal had been working hard to recover liner volumes as well as diversifying its current portfolio of lines and routes.<\/p>\n
In the first 11 months of 2017, 193,559 teu had been handled, compared to 175,634 teu in the same period in the previous year, which represents growth of 10%, something the company attributes to a new, bi-weekly service to\/from Asia, as well as to the recovery of the regional trade.<\/p>\n
In fact, with such a fluid situation in place, the spokesperson refutes all suggestions of a possible monopoly situation in force at the Navegantes port complex.<\/p>\n
\u201cItaja\u00ed competes with several other terminals in the region, among others Itapo\u00e1, Imbituba and Santos. Furthermore, many shipping lines are currently using ports in Santa Catarina, operating diverse routes and offering different services for the end users,\u201d says the APMT spokesperson. \u201cItaja\u00ed is handling many different shipping lines – so it\u2019s up to the customers to choose which facility best fits their transit time needs, connections, cost terms, and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Supporting infrastructure<\/strong><\/p>\nFor its part, Portonave hopes that serious attention will be given to both the construction of the much needed new turning basin and to measures to bring draft back to previously higher levels. This, says Mr Castilho, will help to complement good productivity, whereby Portnoave has held the South American record for this ever since October 2014, when 270.4 moves per crane hour were recorded in an operation involving six ship-to-shore gantry cranes that were deployed on a single vessel.<\/p>\n
Part of its success comes from investment in infrastructure and facilities, he suggests. In 2015, for example, yard capacity at Portonave was doubled from 15,000 teu to 30,000 teu. The following year, major investment was made in the electrification of the Rubber-tyred gantry crane fleet, reducing diesel consumption in the terminal by 62%.<\/p>\n
At present, the customer base consists of ten long distance container lines and one cabotage service.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis hasn\u2019t changed drastically in the last few years, although some alterations have been made to call patterns due to market needs,\u201d says Mr Castilho.<\/p>\n
\n
\nFOCUS ON ATTRACTING FOREIGN INVESTMENT <\/strong><\/p>\nIn recent years, the Brazilian federal government has been promoting a policy of port expansion, particularly targeting overseas investors. Few so far have felt sufficiently comfortable to buy into new port projects in the country.<\/p>\n
Asked what he thought is holding them back, Glauco Jos\u00e9 C\u00f4rte, president of the Federation of Industry for Santa Catarina State (FIESC), is adamant that the main issue is that the Brazilian legal and institutional environment needs to be improved to further stimulate the participation of private investors, be they foreign or domestic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are making progress, but we have to go further, because the Brazilian government has exhausted its own capacity to make investment in this sector. Bureaucracy, lack of clearer rules in the environmental licensing processes, tax environment and centralisation of decisions in Brasilia are the main issues that need to be addressed in order to reverse Brazil’s infrastructure deficiencies, not only for ports, but also for highways, airports and railways,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The inability of the state to bankroll future port development has to be seen as an opportunity for the private sector, he says, not ruling out investment from either domestic sources or those overseas to fill the funding gap.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very important to note that the overall scenario is definitely improving. The passing of extensive labour law reform and clear government signals that the private sector should increase participation in infrastructure investments are examples of this. The existence of new projects and surveys of international groups interested in the Brazilian port sector also reinforce this conviction,\u201d says Mr C\u00f4rte.<\/p>\n
<\/a> In respect of what he sees as the main challenges facing the Brazilian ports industry going forward, Mr C\u00f4rte cites difficulties with the legal and institutional environment for the management and expansion of both existing ports and also when attracting new investment.<\/p>\n\u201cAnother challenge is land access, which requires planning, expansion, maintenance and modernisation. In this sense, FIESC is working to try and see transport diversified. At present, road transport predominates, undertaking 68% of all movements in Santa Catarina. Again, this challenge is also an opportunity for private sector participation,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Brazil is dealing with its image problems when it comes to attracting foreign investment, reports Alex Hughes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":11382,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-11381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-south-america"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11381"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=11381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}