Petrobras was the winner of the auction for the concession of port terminals with a single offer of R$ 558,250,000.99 for the concession of the STS08A area in the Port of Santos, in São Paulo. The site is intended for the movement, storage and distribution of bulk liquids (fuels). The concession period is 25 years. There was still one more area, STS08, but Petrobras did not make any offer, claiming that STS08A already had all the strategic and necessary characteristics for the company's operations.

The other terminal area available in the auction, at the Imbituba Port Complex, in Santa Catarina, the IMB05, was leased by Fertilizantes Santa Catarina Ltda, for R$ 200 thousand, being also the only company to make an offer. The area is also intended for the movement of bulk liquid fuel or chemicals, mainly from Maceió (AL), to supply companies located throughout the southern region. The concession period is ten years.

According to the national secretary of Ports, Diogo Pilone (photo), from now on, an analysis will be carried out to understand why there were no interested parties in the STS08 area in Santos and when this study is concluded, the auction will be relaunched. “Let's start studying now. What we have noticed in other concession processes is that there is an issue of input costs that has increased a lot. It is possible that we will have to reassess the terminal's vocation, rail access, among other things”.

Pilone highlighted that, with the concession at the Port of Santos, more handling capacity is added, mainly with investments in two berths. “Today, this is the main bottleneck at the port in the liquid bulk and fuel chain. In addition to reducing the vessel queue and optimizing the flow of cargo, the concession will regularize the precariousness of contracts, bringing legal certainty."

With respect to Imbituba, the concession will enable the port to diversify the terminal to serve more chains, another important move for the country. "It is a port that, considering all the effort of the management team, has worked for those that have less dependence on contracts, which were previously the main source of revenue.

According to Pilone, the concession of areas in the two ports will result in investments totaling R$700 million. The balance sheet for the year accounts for 12 auctions of port leases carried out, with R$1.7 billion of investments authorized for the next three years.

"These actions are also in addition to other investments that have been authorized through private-use terminals. If we consider everything that has been authorized in investments since 2019 in leases within organized ports and private-use terminals, we are talking about something around R$15 billion," he said.

The Minister of Infrastructure, Tarcísio de Freitas, said that the Port Lease Program is a great success and is transforming the Brazilian port sector. "When we add port leases and adhesion contracts for private terminals, we are already hitting R$ 14 billion in investments in the sector. This is interesting because it makes our port sector more and more efficient, which responds to market expectations".

Freitas also highlighted that the current investments in the Port of Santos help prepare the company for privatization. "In a short time we should have a decision by the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) with this project approved and auctioned in the first quarter of next year. It will be the first port privatization in our history, which opens the way for others".

According to the minister, Brazil is on the way to having the most private structure in the world, as it will have all the airports in the Infraero network under the responsibility of the private sector, and it is preparing the concession of 12,000 kilometers of highways, with the expectation of totaling 50,000 kilometers granted in 2022. "We will have private railways and basic sanitation. The energy sector will be increasingly in the hands of the private sector, especially with the sale of Eletrobras next year. We will have very successful auctions."