End users of the ports, the so-called cargo owners, say that the port reform – about to complete a year – has not reduced the prices they pay to operate. According to Osvaldo Agripino, founder and legal consultant of the Association of Users of the Ports of Santa Catarina (Usuport), the greater supply of terminals will benefit shipowners, who are direct clients of the ports. But the Ports Law did not guarantee mechanisms for the shipping company to pass on to the exporter the reduction in the costs of operating in the ports. In port, the owner of the cargo hires the shipowner who, in turn, chooses the terminal where the ship will berth. “The reform did not reach the shipowner. There is no point in building more terminals if the logistics agents are not regulated.”
Agripino criticized what he considered a lack of action by the National Waterway Transport Agency (Antaq) on the activity of transnational shipowners, who carry 98% of Brazilian foreign trade. “Once here, they delegate the activity to a shipping agent. When you have a problem, you cannot catch the point guard. Antaq has no control at all, it does not know which ships are, it does not give scales, it does not grant authorization, it does not know what they charge users”, he said. The demonstrations were made at an infrastructure event held by Fiesp.
Director of Antaq, Fernando Fonseca said that the agency does not have the prerogative to issue a grant for these operators to carry out the activity in the country, contrary to what happens with Brazilian flag companies. “What we can do is a normative act to regulate, regulate and supervise the performance of these companies. We intend to issue a normative act ”, he said, without giving a date.
The idea is to monitor freight, but not set prices. As well as monitoring demurrage charges (demurrage charged by the user's shipowner for late delivery of the container) and the performance and quality of service of these companies.
More than 20 are charged for extra items alone, in addition to sea freight itself, said Agripino. According to him, 70% of long-haul shipowners operating in Brazilian waters use flags of convenience registered in other countries.
Regarding the statement that the Ports Law does not guarantee the reduction of costs to cargo owners, the special advisor of the Secretariat of Ports (SEP), José Newton Barbosa, disagreed. “The owner of the cargo hires the shipowner through an agent. This agent will have to reduce the price due to competitiveness”, he said.
Port terminals also criticized some aspects of the new law. The facilities created under the old law, from 1993, will suggest to the government mechanisms to balance coexistence with the new terminals that will be leased in public ports. The reform changed the rules for the private initiative to enter the port operation: it eliminated the requirement that the entrepreneur pay a grant to win the bidding. The auction premium has been priced in the services charged by the terminals throughout the lease.
The new criterion for auctioning off the areas will be the guarantee of the lowest fee to be charged for the service or the greatest movement of cargo, which will create two different economic models in the same competitive environment.
“We are looking for ways to balance the two structures”, said the delegate of the Brazilian Association of Port Terminals (BTP) and president of Brasil Terminal Portuário (BTP), in the port of Santos, Henry Robinson. The executive did not detail what the suggestions will be.
Source: Valor Econômico
By Fernanda Pires