Legislation preventing investment in Brazilian ports

According to Mr Di Bella, the current system is experiencing a paradox in that, while demand for port services is growing and there is a need to renovate much of the existing infrastructure as well as adding further capacity to enable ports to handle larger vessels, obtaining the necessary authorisation to do so remains extremely difficult.

In 2013, legislation was passed that, among other measures, takes away from port companies the task of signing contracts and concession agreements. These are now the responsibility of the national waterway transport association Agência Nacional de Transportes Aquaviários.

It can now take up to four years before a private sector company can obtain permission to lease port premises.

He put forward the second container terminal at the Port of Suape as an example. Here, it has taken five years to advance what is viewed as a key publicly-operated terminal, with investment of $269m still held up by bureaucracy.

Mr Di Bella said that fifteen times this amount of potential port investment is similarly impacted across the country.