The government launches a public consultation today with the suggestion of changing the borders – polygonal calls – of 17 organized ports, as anticipated by Valor PRO, Valor's real-time information service. Contrary to what part of the private initiative feared, the new designs proposed by the Secretariat of Ports (SEP) will not advance in private areas nor will they include terminals for private use, the so-called TUPs. "There is no such guideline," said a government source.
The consultation will be available on the SEP website for 30 days, which will contain the current design and the suggestion for changes to the following ports: Porto Velho (RO), Salvador, Aratu and Ilhéus, (BA), Barra do Riacho (ES), Cabedelo (PB), Recife (PE) Santana (AP), Angra dos Reis, Forno and Niterói (RJ), Natal and Areia Branca (RN), Porto Alegre, Pelotas and Estrela (RS) and Laguna (SC).
Most public ports already have a decree delimiting their border, but the limits of 17 of them were defined in old ordinances, from the time when the ports were under the management of the Ministry of Transport. The Ports Law determined that the government adapt the traverses within one year, a deadline completed yesterday. There is no provision for a suggested change for the 20 other ports that already have a decree.
Organized ports house the public infrastructure necessary for navigation and the movement of cargo and passengers. In them, the action of the private initiative takes place through the leasing of terminals via bidding, as provided for in the new regulatory framework for the sector.
The definition of new frontiers for public ports is a topic that involves TUP entrepreneurs and investors interested in this operating model – TUPs are built in their own area and, therefore, are not subject to public concession, having more flexible operating rules. An example: they are exempt from hiring professionals from the Labor Management Body (Ogmo), an obligation that falls on the leased terminals.
For the chairman of the board of directors of Logz Logística Brasil, Nelson Carlini, it would not be necessary to hold a public hearing to define the traverses, if the ownership of the land already determines the operating model. “The polygons have to stick to the Union’s own areas.”
Last year, a draft decree was drawn up to replace the current decree that delimits the port of Santos. The design, which was never made official, encompasses the industrial district of Alemoa, a region occupied by 37 companies that own the land. As the areas of the organized port can only be occupied via bidding, companies in the district fear the risk that their properties will be expropriated for the government to carry out bids, discontinuing current operations. Some even suspended investments.
“We are not looking at private areas. Nobody thinks about expropriating”, said a government source who is following the process. “We are analyzing it sparingly, there are cases of polygons that cover an entire city”.
An emblematic example is the public port of Paranaguá (PR). “It encompasses the entire bay of Paranaguá and Antonina and goes as far as Guarçouba, a distance of almost 50 km. It makes no sense for the government to stock up on areas,” says Carlo Botarelli, president of the Triunfo group, which bought land within the current southern organized port and expects to see the polygon reduced, excluding its area.
Source: Valor Econômico
By Fernanda Pires | of Santos
