MRS has new Santos Terminal

Besides iron ore and steel, the intermodal and grain shipping businesses are important objective for MRS RR, which operates the Southeast railway grid crossing the states of Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The company has advanced studies to set up a terminal in Santos – the main port of Brazil — in the place known as Valongo, on the right margin of the Port. 

In Santos MRS RR owns 300,000 square meters of land. As informed by Júlio Fontana Neto, CEO of the company, the place is used now as railroad yard and workshop for locomotives. 

The project foresees the construction of a multi-purpose terminal: for containers, whose demand is growing in the country, and for storage of grains. It also foresees a pier for grain shipments, which would be linked to the terminal by a conveyor belt system. This part of the project still depends on approval. 

Preliminary studies, according to Fontana Neto, estimate investments of approximately R$ 400 million (US$ 200 million) for the whole enterprise that would be built in two stages. For being less complex, the initial phase would be that of containers, foreseen to enter in operation until the end of 2007. 

According to Guilherme Quintela, CEO of Estação da Luz Participações´ (EDLP), responsible consulting company for planning and commercialization of the terminal – called Teval (Terminal de Valongo) – it would have a capacity of up to 600,000 TEUs (measure unit equivalent to a 20-feet container) per year after in full operation. 

For ends of comparison, Tecon, owned by Santos Brasil, also in Santos, is the largest operator in the country, with over 1.1 million TEUs. In physical units, Tecon handled 735,000 containers in 2006. 

With four terminals in operation – Santos Brasil, Libra, Tecondi and Rodrimar – the Port of Santos handled 1.6 million containers last year. Santos Brasil, located on the left margin of the Port, was responsible for 46% of that volume.

Teval will serve as support for those container shipment terminals and others that are to be installed in the port, as the project of Terminal Brasil, of the same size as Santos Brasil. 

MRS plans to create an infrastructure and logistics grid for container transport to the port of Santos, encompassing Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, Sepetiba, Vale do Paraíba and São Paulo, Quintela said. Presently, only 4% of the containers arrive at the port, come by rail. MRS´ goal is to reach 30% by 2010, informed the entrepreneur. 

In the second phase, for grain reception and movement, the construction of three warehouses is foreseen with a capacity of 130,000 tons each. The loads, of several origins, will arrive by train and truck. That stage should take another two or three years. 

We are expecting to launch the project soon, informed Fontana Neto. According to the executive, MRS already filed the application for the environmental license for installation of the container area that will occupy 140,000 square meters, almost half of the land. 

At the same time, said the Fontana Neto, MRS is talking with potential investors to become Teval partners. According to information from the sector, the Japanese trading company Mitsui is a strong candidate, because logistics and infrastructure businesses are their investment objectives in Brazil. We are open to negotiate with anyone, said Fontana Neto. 

The MRS railway, was privatized ten years ago, transported 115 million tons of cargo in 2006 (over 70% iron ore, steel and coal), and already has connections to the container business. The company says it is the biggest cargo carrier in the country, with over 130 TEUs in 2006.  The construction of a belt carrier in the Serra do Mar mountain range (16 km long) to take iron ore from Cosipa will clear the rails for MRS to take containers downhill to Teval.

Fonte: Valor Econômico