INTERMODAL SOUTH AMERICA: BACK IN BUSINESS

The Intermodal South America (ISA) trade show returned to the stage this year, after a three-year absence and exceeded all expectations, according to the organisers as well as dozens of attendees interviewed by Port Strategy.

Hermano do Amaral Pinto Junior, Business Director for Informa markets Brazil, said that around 22,000 people attended the 26th edition of ISA which, despite hosting almost no participants from China [which usually make up around 20% of the Expo], was only around 34 per cent less than the record number of 36,000 back in 2019.

“Up until the week before we only had 12,000 paid registrations so we were somewhat worried,” said Pinto, “but then we had 1000s of new registrations at the last minute, much to our relief. During the absence of a physical Intermodal show many people, and especially freight forwarders, have been very supportive of our efforts to bring this event back. People have been so grateful and happy to be together again, and we have provided the opportunity for contacts and deals to be made and for the government to outline its privatisation and infrastructure plans, such as the Green Line project.”

The keynote speech at the IM came from Tarcisio Gomes de Freitas, the Infrastructure Minister, who is pushing hard a privatisation programme in the transport sector (especially ports and port authorities: see preceding articles).

“Brazil will increasingly become a multimodal country, more and more efficient from a logistical point of view,” he confidently told those gathered. “We expect participation of the rail mode of transport to grow from 20 to 40 per cent by the year 2035.”

Running concurrently with ISA was the 25th National Conference on Logistics which also focussed on logistics developments in Brazil.

Several attendees expressed their “absolute delight” that ISA was up and running again as it gave them a “one shop stop” to see dozens of clients face to face after the three-year hiatus, as “Zoom meetings are just not the same”.

Marcelo Goncalves, the Kalmar director for Latin America Mobile Equipment Sales, further emphasised this. “This trade show is mostly for renewing contacts and meeting people face-to-face. Most of our customers are here and they are keen to talk about their future plans and if Reporto is brought back, as we expect, then more orders will be made,” he told Port Strategy at the show.