Brazil Unveils Investment Plan for Port Privatization

Last week, the Brazilian Ministry of Ports and Airports unveiled an investment plan for the upcoming privatization of the country’s major terminals. The plan targets over 50 projects, including port leases and concessions slated for the next two years. The privatization plan is expected to attract investment worth over $3 billion in the Brazilian port sector.

At least five leases are planned at the Port of Santos, including concessions for three terminals and the navigation channel. One of the most notable projects is the auction of the STS10 Terminal, scheduled in the last quarter of 2025. The terminal will increase the container capacity of the Port of Santos by 2 million TEUs. The government will lease the terminal for 25 years for an investment of $580 million. The other auctions will be held across 12 states that host ports critical to Brazil’s foreign trade. Other port areas planned for auction next year include Paranaguá (PR) and Rio de Janeiro.

“The Ministry is closely working with the National Waterway Transport Agency (Antaq) to ensure that these projects are expedited. During President Lula’s four-year term, we aim to hold 55 port sector auctions. To put this into perspective, approximately 45 auctions were conducted between 2013 and 2022. This will secure increased investments and promote modernization and efficiency across our ports,” said Silvio Costa Filho, the Minister of Ports and Airports.

Meanwhile, the government also announced competitive credit lines and tax incentives to attract investors. Specifically, the Merchant Marine Fund(MMF) will allocate 30 percent of its budget to the port sector. The Ministry of Ports added that the port regulatory environment has been streamlined, reducing authorization process by three months.

Separately, a recent analysis by APM Terminals and Brazilian firms A&M Infra and Navarro Prado Advogados, opines that improved efficiency in Brazil’s port sector would help attract the ultra-large containerships, with significant savings on maritime transport costs.

“Historically speaking, new classes of ships generally begin to scale the Brazilian coast 8 to 15 years after they begin operating in European ports. For 366-meter-long ships, which have been operating in Rotterdam since 2006, have not been accommodated in Brazil mainly due to lack of infrastructure. If the appropriate infrastructure were available, these ships could theoretically have been calling at Brazilian ports since 2018,” the study found.

In addition, the use of mega ships linking the East Coast of South America (ECSA) to Asia would help develop the hub-and-spoke system in Brazilian port sector. This model could bring significant operational gains, allowing for reduced layover times (the connection times of a container between the long haul ship and the cabotage ship), which today are 5 to 7 days in Brazilian ports.

“The consolidation of one or more hub ports in Brazil would mean a potential increase of up to 4.6 million TEUs of transshipment (in 2023 volumes). In comparison, the total transshipment movements carried out in Brazil were approximately 2.4 million TEUs in 2023. That is to say, in a more ambitious scenario for the implementation of the hub ports dynamic, the transshipment volume in Brazil could triple,” observed Leonardo Levy, Investment Director of APM Terminals for the Americas.