EVALUATION OF ACCESS TO PORT AND RAILWAY CONTAINER TERMINALS IN BRAZIL

The increased use of containers for cargo handling is a worldwide trend, covering not only developed countries, but also developing countries, as is the case of Brazil. This phenomenon can be observed from the strong growth of container handling in ports around the world. In the period from 1999 to 2003, world movement of containerized cargo in ports grew by 55,2%, while total world exports increased by only 32,2%.

In Brazil, the growth in the total volume of container handling in ports has been expressively greater than the growth in the country's foreign trade. In the period from 2001 to 2005, port handling of containerized cargo doubled, reaching the level of 5,9 million TEUs (Twenty Feet Equivalent Unit, a unit of measurement that is equivalent to a 20-foot container) in 2005. period, the accumulated growth of Brazilian foreign trade (exports + imports) was 68,5%. Thus, even though it is a country whose largest volume of exported tons is bulk, the importance of products packaged in containers has been growing significantly.

The increased use of containers has been one of the main factors driving intermodal cargo transport around the world. Through its use, the cargo leaves its origin and goes to its final destination, being able to use different modes of transport without having to be handled or divided. The use of a container increases the efficiency of cargo transshipment, reducing the time spent changing transport modes.

But its use alone is not enough for there to be efficiency in intermodal terminals. An issue that has been much questioned, both in Brazil and in international ports, concerns the quality of access to cargo terminals, especially ports and railway terminals.

Seeking to assess the quality of access to Brazilian intermodal terminals, CEL/Coppead carried out a survey with managers of the country's main container port terminals and rail terminals that handle containerized cargo. The results are presented below.

Access to port terminals

The first conclusion obtained in the research shows that, in Brazil, there are more port terminals with road access problems than in the USA. In practically all the evaluated items, Brazil has more problems. Congestion was indicated as a critical problem by 60% of port terminals.

In general, the quality of land access to ports that handle containers was highly criticized, having received an average score of 4,7 points (on a scale of 0 to 10 points) for road access and 4,8 points for rail access . The future, however, shows an optimistic perspective of terminal managers, who believe that the average grade should improve.

While the scenario does not change, the low investments made by the Brazilian government to resolve bottlenecks in accessing ports have been one of the most criticized points. But the problems of container terminals are not the same in all regions of the country. Although there are common criticisms, it is interesting to note that each terminal has its specificity.

In the Southeast, the region with the greatest port movement in Brazil, the problems pointed out are typical of terminals with large agglomeration of cargo. The three most critical problems cited in this region were: congestion, little government investment in rail accesses and lack of parking area. It is worth noting that the terminals in the Southeast region were the most dissatisfied with regard to issues involving road access to ports.

The Northeast/North terminals, in turn, have very poor or non-existent rail access. Currently, this region has the highest degree of dissatisfaction with items involving the railways. The main problems mentioned by the terminals were: speed of trains, availability of wagons/locomotives and low level of investment by concessionaires and the government in railroad access to ports.

Finally, in the South region, which is the least critical in the country, especially in items related to road access, he mentioned government investments in rail access as the main problem.

Although still considered unrepresentative, managers of Brazilian terminals recognize some recent improvements that facilitated the arrival and departure, by land, of containers in ports. In the Southeast, private investments made by road and rail concessionaires; in the South, the repaving of highways; and, in the Northeast, investments in railway rolling stock and the construction of new access roads were identified as the most significant recent improvements.

This scenario, where the problems are considered serious and the recent improvements do not have a very significant impact, generates an inefficient situation for the reception and disposal of cargo in the ports.

When access to ports is not efficient, the entire cargo transport operation ends up being compromised, as the bottlenecks faced when arriving at the port promote delays and the need for extra stock, increasing the total logistical cost. This could affect the profitability of terminals and exporting companies and, on a broader scale, also affect the competitiveness of Brazilian products abroad.

One of the ways to improve the issue would be to expand the use of railways, since a railway composition eliminates the use of several trucks, reducing queues and congestion at the entrance to ports. In Brazil, the use of railways for the arrival and disposal of containers in ports is still very low: only 1,9% of containers arriving at Brazilian ports and 1,6% of those leaving ports do so via rail. The terminals estimate that these percentages will increase in the coming years1, rising to 3,8%, both for the receipt and for the outflow of this type of cargo.

Access to rail terminals

Currently, Brazilian railroads are still very unrepresentative in the transport of containers, moving a little over one hundred thousand units per year. Historically, however, between 2001 and 2005, the volume of containers handled on Brazilian railroads more than doubled, indicating a growing trend in the use of this modal for container transport.

By way of comparison, in 2005, more than eleven million units of containers were handled on Class I railroads in the USA. In order for the American railroads to constitute a fundamental link in the transport of containers in the country, several investments were necessary, both by the government and the private sector, in infrastructure, equipment and IT, among others.

And these investments were not restricted only to the roads, but also to the intermodal terminals for transferring cargo between trains and trucks, whose efficiency is crucial for the viability of rail transport of containers.

In Brazil, according to a survey carried out by CEL/Coppead in 2005, there are 26 main railway terminals that handle containers in the country. The location of these facilities is highly concentrated in the South and Southeast regions.

The comparison between Brazil and the USA indicates that Brazilian railway terminals face more problems than American ones, especially with regard to paving and signaling conditions on the access roads to their facilities.

However, unlike port terminals, managers of Brazilian railway terminals do not face as many problems with road access to their facilities, a fact that also happens in the American market.

Because they work with a much higher scale of movement than that of railroad workers, port terminals face greater losses caused by inefficient access. This difference in the magnitude of the losses involved makes the demand for quality of access even greater for port terminals, which need to deal with the coordination of a higher number of trains and trucks to make their operations viable.

Thus, the average score attributed by railway terminal managers to road access to facilities was 6,5 points (on a scale of 0 to 10 points), while rail access received an overall average of 7,5 points. This evaluation has improved in recent years since, in 2002, the averages attributed to road and rail accesses were 5,7 and 7,1 points, respectively.

The grades expected for access to terminals in 2008 demonstrate that there is a very optimistic perspective regarding the continuity of the process of improving the quality of these issues. The expected average score for 2008 is 7,9 for road access and 8,2 for rail access. This projection is quite promising and indicates that, for the coming years, the terminals believe that access to their facilities will not be an obstacle to the development of intermodality in the country.

Even though they were satisfied with the quality of their road and rail accesses, terminal managers pointed out the main problems that currently most influence this issue. The two aspects considered most critical were government investment levels for rail access, which received an average score of 7,2 points, and for road access, which received 6,0 points. These were the only two questions that received a score greater than 5,0, in a total of 21 problems analyzed.

With regard to the main recent improvements made in the access to rail terminals, the biggest advance occurred in the level of investment in wagons and locomotives, which received an overall average of 6,6 points. The other evaluated items received a score lower than 5,0, indicating that there were no improvements or that they did not have a major impact on the quality of the access roads to the terminals.

CONCLUSION

Brazil still does not have a consolidated intermodal container transport system. The lack of infrastructure, availability and frequency of means of transport alternative to trucks, as well as the low prices of road freight, are some of the reasons why intermodality carried out using containers is still incipient in Brazil.

However, the flow of containers in the country has shown very high growth over the years, especially due to the increase in international trade. This increase may lead to a greater scale of movement, allowing modes typically used for transporting large volumes, such as the railroad, to increase their representation in the movement of containers.

So that the country can make the most of this growth situation, it is necessary to guarantee the necessary conditions for the flow of production. In this context, the consolidation of an efficient container transport system involves the quality of access to intermodal terminals, both port and rail.

Currently, ports are the most affected by land access problems. Managers of container port terminals expect greater government action to reduce access bottlenecks, thus avoiding loss of competitiveness for the national product. In turn, the actions carried out by the railway and road concessionaires are perceived as important drivers of the improvements that occurred in relation to the past. And as for the future, expectations are optimistic. It remains to be seen whether the planned improvements will actually be achieved.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CEL/COPPEAD. Logistics Overview – Container Intermodality in Brazil, Research Report, 2006.

CEL/COPPEAD. Logistics Overview – Logistics and International Trade, Research Report, 2005.

FIGUEIREDO, KF; FLEURY, P. F; WANKE, P. Logistics and Supply Chain Management: Product Flow and Resource Planning. São Paulo: Editora Atlas, 2003.

US DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION. NHS Intermodal Freight Connectors: Report to Congress, USA, 2000.

Footnote

1 – Value estimated by ports and terminals for 2007

Authors: Maria Fernanda Hijjar and Flavia Alexim