São Paulo – Transportation and logistics expo Intermodal ended this Thursday (15) in São Paulo after seeing an increase in exhibitor and visitor numbers, its director Renan Joel said. “Visitor turnout went up, but apart from that, we welcomed a higher-level demographic,” the executive told ANBA. He also said total exhibitor numbers were up 15% from the previous edition. The final visitor count will only be made public next week.
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Out of the various industry segments represented at the show, Joel said he found port operators to be the busiest. “Ports are beginning to rebound after a slump,” he said. This pickup, according to him, has been underway for a year now, especially when it comes shipping containers, since throughput hadn’t gone down significantly for bulk cargo such as grain. Joel noted that this pickup in container movements holds true of both imports and exports.
Exhibitors included port operators from Arab countries. Sohar Port and Freezone, for instance, was sharing space with the Netherlands’ Port of Rotterdam. Oman’s government and the Dutch port manage the Sohar facility via joint venture.
Brazil’s mining company Vale has its own facilities in Sohar – an iron ore pelletizing plant, a storage and a sea terminal. Sohar’s management is looking to bring in more Brazilian companies, especially ones that deal in food products.
DP World Santos was featured in a large standalone stand. An arm of Dubai port operator DP World, it manages a container terminal at São Paulo’s Port of Santos. Originally co-owned by DP World and Brazil’s Odebrecht, the area formerly known as Embraport was bought out by DP World, which also changed its name.
Another company active in the Arab world that was featured at the trade show is L.I.N.K., an international forwarding network. Its director in charge of exhibitions is Mark Fernandez, the regional general manager for Bahrain-based company Celerity Shipping.
The network comprises enterprises in 65 countries, and its goal at the expo was to get more members from South and Central America. “I believe that in a few months’ time we will have six or more new members [from those regions],” said the director in charge of membership, Nick Driver, regarding how talks during the expo may evolve. “It has been fantastic,” he said.
Airlines
Intermodal director Joel also sees a hike in demand for air cargo transportation. “Air transportation is booming, but it’s mostly used in shipping perishables or valuable cargo,” he said. Several airlines were present at the trade show, but none were from Arab countries. Dubai’s Emirates SkyCargo joined several past Intermodal editions.
Joel also said the expo has grown because it has diversified. At first targeting mostly transportation, it has come to include several aspects of the logistics industry, in a bid to cover all steps of supply chains. This means that besides actual transportation, the trade show featured technology and even packaging exhibitors.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
