Operator of Brazil's biggest port revamps core operating system

Port operator Santos Brasil has concluded the modernization of its terminal operating system (TOS), the main port management and operation system used by companies in the sector.

The work was done at Tecon Santos, considered the largest container terminal in South America, as previously reported by BNamericas. The TOS provider for the port is South Korean logistics technology expert CyberLogitec. 

Santos Brasil did not report specific capex figures for the project, which began in April 2021 with the selection of CyberLogitec's OPUS software.

Since then, Santos Brasil has been working on different stages and upgrades for the deployment. Prior to carrying out the modernization at Tecon Santos, it had already completed the migration of systems at Tecon Vila do Conde, the terminal it manages in Barcarena, Pará state.

The new TOS enables the terminal to operate with cutting-edge technologies, including the use of Optical Character Recognition (OCR), remote-controlled equipment, new digital twins and artificial intelligence, Santos Brasil said in a statement.

The port operator has used digital twins to simulate volumes and machinery virtually. The provider of this digital replica is Pittsburgh-based specialist Simio.

In a previous interview with BNamericas, Santos Brasil CTIO Ricardo Miranda said that the TOS was part of the operator's 60mn-real (US$12mn) annual budget for investments for digital transformation and “pure” technology, such as systems and data. 

Santos Brasil expected to make investments of around 1.5bn reais (US$304mn) in expansions and modernizations by 2030.

The firm has invested an estimated 9bn reais in acquisitions, expansions, new equipment and technology since its creation 26 years ago.

The company is also in the process of modernizing its data park and migrating it to the cloud, and is about to select a datacenter company to store its workloads.

Santos Brasil's sensitive information on port operations, including the TOS, will remain stored internally and on-premise due to legal requirements that are still in force for this type of application “for now”, Miranda previously said.

Santos Brasil operates five sea terminals, three of which are container terminals – Tecon Santos (Santos Port in São Paulo state), Tecon Vila do Conde (Barcarena port in Pará) and Tecon Imbituba (Imbituba port in Santa Catarina), as well as the TCG Imbituba general cargo terminal and TEV, an exclusive vehicle-handling terminal at Santos port.