The Presidency Secretariat for Ports (SEP/PR) has a series of foreseeing projects within the two stages of the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC1 and PAC2) of the Federal Government. These projects prioritize the maintenance, recuperation and expansion of the ports’ infrastructure, as well as an increase of the Brazilian ports logistic. They will guarantee competitivity and dynamism, besides reducing the costs of waterway transportation and contributing to the country development.

The Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) is a Federal Government strategy that seeks to promote the planning and execution of large infrastructure works, as well as urban and logistic works. That way, PAC will help the country maintain sustainable growth within a short period of time.

The Federal Government PAC has among its goals to stimulate the productive efficiency of the main economy sectors, to boost the technological modernization, to accelerate the growth of expansion areas in addition to activate the depressed sectors and to increase the Brazilian competitiveness. The program will invest R$989.4 billion in infrastructure throughout its 4 years (each of PAC’s stages has a duration of 4 years). The increasing investment in infrastructure has a central role to accelerate the sustainable development. Thus, the country will be able to overcome economic bottlenecks, stimulate productivity and mitigate local and social differences.

The Federal Government Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) seeks to improve the logistic strategies for the investors interested in leasing an area in the statutory port. Other investments, such as deepening dredging, land accesses and cargo security, will be made with PAC1 and PAC2 resources.

Altogether approximately R$7.5 billion will be invested on ports. Under the PAC1 scope, the Federal Government has invested up to R$1.6 billion on the National Dredging Program (PND), around R$1.8 billion on improving port infrastructure and about R$50 million on logistic intelligence actions. Within PAC2, the foreseen investments for the 2011-2014 period are close to R$1 billion for the National Dredging Program, R$2.8 billion for port infrastructure and R$350 million for logistic intelligence.

The dredging investments will deepen the terminal accesses canals, allowing them to receive larger vessels, increasing competitiveness and the cargo handling capacity. As for the investments in construction works and infrastructure recovery, they will magnify the existent port capacity, adjusting it to the vessels’ new reality and making it possible to improve the port accessibility.

The port management and logistic actions will optimize the vessels, vehicles and cargo movement in ports. That will allow the waiting time to drop 25%, making possible a better use of the mooring berth infrastructure and also of the existing movement equipment, which will then enlarge, the Brazilian port capacity.

The Federal Government will make investments to modernize seven Brazilian ports to welcome passengers on floating hotels during the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. The Government has planned to invest R$41,2 million in Salvador, R$28,1 million in Recife, R$72,5 million in Natal, R$202,6 million in Fortaleza, R$155 million in Santos, R$314 million in Rio de Janeiro and R$ 71,1 million in Manaus, totaling R$740.7 million.

For more information about port works included in the PAC, visit:
www.pac.gov.br/transportes/portos (in portuguese)

The City-Port relationship

The new Port Law (Law No 12,815, 2013) establishes the return to shared planning among the city, local and state administrations. This will contribute to improvement of relationships between the ports and the cities.

Port access planning, a consequence of the new regulatory framework, associates the business necessities with the regional policies, the laws regarding the soil use and other urban instruments such as sanitation, transit and transportation policies besides adjusting the investments in road infrastructure.

Some of the expected benefits that will come from this co-shared responsibility are: more efficient use of the roads, eliminating the dispute between the urban and the port traffic; elimination of the irregular truck parking lots; support for the revitalization and mitigation of the urban area occupied by warehouse, trade and industries interested in port activities.

This integrated action plan also seeks to recover and enrich the communities’ access to the maritime landscape within the port zone, making it possible for the population to enjoy the non-operational spaces with leisure, tourism and culture, while broadening the job market, the local budget generation and port incomes.

Portolog
As an improvement for the ground access, SEP is developing the Portolog system – Port Logistics Intelligent Chain. The goal is to avoid the truck lines in cities and road access to ports.

The pilot system project will be introduced in January, 2014 in Porto de Santos, when the 2014 harvest runoff begins. Its peak is expected to take place in May.

The Portolog aims to synchronize the vessels and the trucks arrival dates as well as truck schedules and credentials, seeking the rational use of ports and full port access capacity.

Today, the port terminals use two pre-existing private regulator waiting areas to schedule the truck traffic. The vehicles are authorized to drive to the port terminal only when there are available unloading spots. It is forbidden to welcome any vehicle without previous scheduling. Some areas will still be defined in order to construct new waiting area.

Through this new system, before the trucks arrive in the port, they will be headed to the screening waiting area. They will be retained in this first area to be registered and scheduled in the Portolog system.

Once there is an open spot near the waiting area, the scheduled trucks will be directed to this area where they will be admitted and informed of the departure time in order to head to the port terminals.

With these measures, the government wishes to secure the drivers with a safe place with infrastructure, rather than long lines without any structure.

The Portolog system will be introduced in other public ports. Santos will be the first one to receive the system since it is the one that deals with more than 50% of the exported harvest mostly of the corn grain and soy beans complex.

See the Portolog presentation here.