Brazil looking to speed up tenders for port terminal leases

Brazilian waterways authority Antaq approved the public consultation process for a tender for a port terminal and gave the green light to construction of another two.

The public consultation will be for the MCP03 terminal at Santana port (in photo) in northern state Amapá.

The estimate is that the 11,680m2 brownfield area will attract investments of 89mn reais (US$18.5mn), Antaq said in a statement.

The terminal will be able to handle 1Mt of bulk solid vegetables but dates for the public consultation and the auction of the terminal lease have still not been set. 

Leasing of port terminals is a widely used mechanism to attract private sector investment in Brazil and its use is likely to accelerate.

“We like the model of offering port terminals through leasing contracts and this has practically become a production line in terms of project structuring. We want to speed up these processes in the coming months and also we want to structure other types of concession projects at the ports, which will be for dredging works," Marcus Cavalcanti, the head of federal investment partnerships program PPI, told BNamericas. 

According to Cavalcanti, regarding concessions for dredging works, Paranaguá port in Paraná state will be first, and then possibly the country's busiest port, Santos in São Paulo state. 

The government already announced auctions in August to offer leasing contracts for five other port terminals. 

The tenders are expected to generate combined investments of 125mn reais.

Of the five, three are in the port of Maceió in Alagoas state, with one in Porto Alegre in Rio Grande do Sul and another in Fortaleza, in Ceará.

All five auctions will be held on August 11.

PRIVATE TERMINALS 

Meanwhile, Antaq also approved the construction and operation of a private use port terminal (TUP) located in Acará, in Pará state. The terminal will be used for the handling and storage of bulk liquids. The project is expected to attract investment of 18mn reais.

The regulator also authorized the construction and operation of a TUP in Corumbá, Mato Grosso do Sul state, with projected investment of 128mn in an area earmarked to handle iron ore and manganese.

Photo credit: Companhia Docas de Santana