Complaints from port users are not limited to depths. These include channel geometry constraints – especially in the port of Rio de Janeiro – and signaling. “During some days during the World Cup there were unlit buoys in Rio Grande. There were 17 days without night navigation”, says Claudio Loureiro, executive director of Centronave, for whom the PND I projects did not consider variables that the PND II is contemplating.
In November, the Secretariat of Ports (SEP) published the public notice for readjusting the geometry of the Rio Grande channel. The bidding will require the winning company to be responsible for obtaining approval from the Navy.
According to the port's infrastructure director, Cesar Wojciechoswki, the natural conditions of bad weather in the region sometimes force the suspension of navigation. He claims that the new tender, in addition to restoring quotas, will allow the placement of 14 new high-tech buoys.
In the port of Recife (PE) the prediction of reaching 11,5 meters was reached, but it was also lost due to lack of maintenance. “We had to invest in other internal infrastructure improvements”, says the president of the port, Schebna Machado. Recife lost half a meter in the deep spot two years ago.
The port of Vitória (ES) also does not have the 14 meters foreseen official and operates with 11,70 meters of depth. In 2009 there was a suspended bid and the current one started in 2012.
Fortaleza is today with depths that vary from 12 to 14 meters, being able to receive ships with a draft of up to 11 meters. Dredging was carried out two years ago and the last bathymetry showed siltation. “The port silts up 500 cubic meters a year and there was no maintenance dredging. It will be launched in November”, said the president of Companhia Docas do Ceará, Mário Jorge, last month. The notice has not yet been published.
Suape is also missing the 15,5 meters in the inner channel and the 20 meters in the outer channel. Today, they are 14,9 and 14,8 meters, respectively. There, the work was not even finished. “But no ship was left unattended because of that”, says Leonardo Cerquinho, director of port management for the Suape complex, according to whom the port is working on carrying out maintenance dredging.
The first tender for the PND II was launched at the beginning of this year, for adaptation and maintenance of the port of Santos, via the Differentiated Contracting Regime. The competition failed, as did a second attempt – the prices offered by the private sector exceeded SEP's budgets. The folder is reassessing the spreadsheets and plans to hold a new event by the end of the year.
Until then, the Companhia Docas do Estado de São Paulo (Codesp) carries out emergency dredging with its own resources to try to preserve PND I gains. . The state-owned company did not inform the currently approved depth.
Source: Valor Econômico
By Fernanda Pires | of Santos
