Onwards and upwards for Brazil

The fortunes of Brazilian ports are rising. Firstly the Special Secretariat for Ports has earmarked an investment of US$ 1.8 billion from the federal government’s Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) specifically aimed at infrastructure work.
 
Ports like Santos will benefit from the new Brazilian initiatives Secondly, some of the bigger ports are to try out a new paperless scheme that aims to cut throughput time.

"The ports are necessary in order to maintain the Brazilian competitiveness… they have a direct impact on economic performance" said Minister Pedro Brito at Santos’ Terminal 4 inauguration. For example, he is looking at the port's container handling capacity to triple by 2024, from 3m to 9m teu.

In an attempt to cut red tape, some South American ports are also to receive a major boost from another Secretariat initiative, again being funded by the PAC programme.

To start with, the Porto Sem Papel (PSP or Ports without Paper) project will be trialled at three of Brazil’s major maritime gateways: these are Santos, Rio de Janeiro and Vitoria.

The PSP project aims to co-ordinate and integrate the various organisations involved in the transit of cargo through Brazil’s ports including customs, health officials and agricultural inspectors among others via an online “single virtual window”. The EDI system will slash time pushing boxes through the major ports by “at least 20%”, says a Special Ports Secretariat statement.

According to the Secretariat, the overall aim is to “reduce logistics costs and make Brazil more competitive in the international markets”.

Source: Port Strategy