Everyone is unanimous in saying that Brazil needs to invest in railroads, waterways and cabotage to make its cargo transportation matrix more efficient. There is no doubt, especially for the transport of large volumes over long distances, which would reduce costs for national industries and also reduce the emission of polluting gases into the atmosphere.
In the transport matrix presented by ILOS recently in our International Supply Chain Forum, Brazil currently has only 21% of production passing through national railroads, while water transport handles around 13% of cargo. On the other hand, in China, more than 50% of the production is shipped by waterway and, in the United States, 30% of the loads go through the railroad. In other words, a lot of work and investment still needs to be done in Brazil to improve the competitiveness of our products in the international market.
Figure 1 – Cargo transport matrix in Brazil, in 2016
Source: ILOS
What the most daring end up forgetting is that just as important as investing in alternative modes is also investing in highways. Although they should not carry more than 60% of national production, as is currently the case, highways are a fundamental part of any country's logistics network, as they expand its capillarity and allow products to reach the doors of homes and companies.
However, in Brazil, the infrastructure of this fundamental part of the logistics network is still quite precarious, especially when compared to other economic powers. While Brazil has almost 25 km of paved roads per 1.000 km2 of land area, the United States has 438 km and China, 360 km.
In addition to low density, Brazil also suffers from the poor quality of its paved road network. In a survey presented in early November, the National Transport Confederation (CNT) showed that 28,2% of national highways are bad or terrible and 33,6% are just regular, considering issues such as pavement, signaling and road geometry .
That is, currently, more than 60% of the national production is disposed, in large part, by inadequate highways, a condition that had already been signaled by the CNT itself in another recent study on freight transport. As a result, companies see their costs grow even more with increased fleet maintenance, higher fuel costs, reduced vehicle productivity, in addition to losses caused by accidents.
It is no coincidence that Brazil ranks 103rd in terms of road infrastructure quality, in the ranking organized by the World Economic Forum, which brings together 137 countries analyzed. In the survey, Brazil received a score of 3,1, on a scale that varies between 1 (extremely underdeveloped structure) and 7 (extensive and efficient structure), while Chile leads in South America, with a score of 5,2 (24th position in the general ranking). The inadequate matrix and poor quality of Brazilian highways also explain, in part, Brazil's poor placement in the International Trade ranking organized by the World Bank and commented by me in the last post.
To get out of this crossroads that affects its future, Brazil must not only invest in transport infrastructure, but rather, invest in transport in a planned and objective way, analyzing the needs of the country as a whole and not of a specific modal. Transport must be thought of in an integrated way to ensure that its users enjoy all the benefits that each mode can generate.
References
World Economic Forum – The Global Competitiveness Report – 2017/2018
Alexandre Lobo
https://ilos.com.brGraduated in Civil Engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and in Social Communication from Faculdades Integradas Hélio Alonso (FACHA). Expertise in several projects with emphasis on market analysis for companies such as Unilever, Intertank, Invepar, Aqces, Inter-American Development Bank and World Bank.
