Brasília – The minister of the Special Secretariat for Ports, Pedro Brito, guarantees that, despite the global financial crisis, investment for improvement and expansion of the public and private port infrastructure of Brazil should not suffer cuts. According to him, in the government’s point of view, there is no paralysis and no reduction of investment.
"On the government’s side, the entire volume of investment turned to dredging, 1.5 billion reals (US$ 688 million) is being maintained, and all tenders are progressing. And I notice the same relation with regard to private investment that was scheduled," he said.
Brito admits, however, that there has been a reduction in the volume transported. According to him, at the moment around 400 container vessels are stopped worldwide, which represents 10% of the total capacity.
"In transport, there should be an impact in coming years. But not in port investment, because we are preparing the ports for after the crisis, and investment is not for now. And it cannot stop or else opportunities may be missed," evaluated the minister.
On the other hand, the Brazilian Association of Port Terminals (ABTP) evaluates that there has been a 20% reduction in the estimated investment in the sector for the coming five years. According to the organisation’s president, Wilen Manteli, early last year, the estimate was for investment of 20 billion reals (US$ 9 billion) in construction of port terminals.
In 2008, the turnover was 800 million tonnes of cargo, which means growth of 6.1% over the previous year. The ABTP president stated that the price of freight also dropped much at the end of last year, but that it has returned to growth. "But prices are still far from what they were before the crisis," he added.
*Translated by Mark Ament
