NORTH AMERICA

Santos concession provokes outrage

20 years ago

A local councillor in the Brazilian city of Santos has criticised the decision by the local port authority to award an area of 80,000 sq m on the left bank to incumbent container terminal operator Santos Brasil without going through the process of an open tender.

Rival operator, Libra Terminais, labelled the decision ‘illegal and unjust’.

However, the port authority claims it has done nothing wrong or unconstitutional, pointing out that if it had granted the land to Libra it would have handed it a de facto monopoly on container handling in that part of the port.

Libra points out that by granting the land to Santos Brazil, it had effectively granted it to the biggest container handling company in the port, which it finds odd.