One of the main challenges to the competitiveness of the industrial center of Manaus (PIM) is logistics, a consequence of the unfavorable geographic position of the region and the precarious infrastructure of its surroundings. To reduce the logistical costs of products manufactured by companies in the region, a solution has been developed for 4 years by the company IV PartnerShip. It is the Atlas HVS, the first port ship in the world, designed to be a cargo hub on the high seas.
The company has eight projects like this in the world: three planned for Brazil and another five being designed for Angola, the Azores, the Mediterranean, the Plata Basin and the United States (Figure 1). The most advanced, however, is the harbor ship designed to serve the northern region of Brazil.
Figure 1 – IV PartnerShip ship-port projects
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D0qc0540Es
Altogether there are around 40 companies specialized in navigation, both national and foreign, organized in the consortium to make the operation viable, with an estimated investment of 400 million dollars. The floating structure would be located 24 miles from the coast (about 40 km), between the States of Amapá and Pará. At this distance, the platform would be in the Exclusive Economic Zone (ZEE) and outside Brazilian legislation, which would require more than 15 documents for the cargo to arrive and would guarantee fiscal and tax exemptions.
The ship was designed with a dimension of 511 meters by 297 meters. Of this total, an area of 40 meters will be used for the installation of offices, clinics or other businesses. The structure will also contain four berths, two external and two internal, with the capacity to receive large ships, measuring up to 400 meters in length.
Figure 2 – Port-ship project
Source: IV PartnerShip
IV Partnership will act as the private manager of this type of condominium where port operators, agents, cargo owners and shipowners will install their crane and operate on the hull. The business model provides for the leasing of slots with the capacity of a 20-foot container (one TEU) for a period of 5 to 10 years, for a total of 70 TEUs to 85 TEUs.
The aim of the project is for large ships to unload containers on the Atlas HVS and be replaced by barges and feeders to deliver inputs from Europe, the United States and Asia. This operation would avoid problems with bureaucracy and maneuvers in Brazilian ports, in addition to protecting the coastal biome and reducing the risk of contamination with ballast water.
In addition, the idea is to allow companies to advance their inventories and reduce the need for fixed capital. Instead of keeping large stocks in countries such as Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, for example, the company could store a larger quantity of products in the ship port and send them to each country according to demand.
The goal of the IV PartnerShip is to complete all local performance analyzes by the first half of this year in order to be able to contract the shipyards in 2017 and prepare them for operation within three years. The question remains, however, whether the benefits expected from this project will be enough to pay for the high investment required and make the harbor ship profitable in fact. In addition, it is to be expected resistance from the management companies of port terminals in the North region regarding the project, fearful of the possibility of loss of income.
Will the project really go ahead? It's wait and see!
References
Ports and Ships Magazine, Year 58, n. 667, Aug. 2016
<http://portalamazonia.com/noticias/navio-porto-surge-como-opcao-de-logistica-para-o-amazonas>
<http://www.abepro.org.br/biblioteca/enegep2004_enegep0112_1302.pdf>
<http://www.ivpartnership.com/>
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D0qc0540Es>