Rio will have a railroad to connect terminals

New ore, oil and freight general projects will take Rio to achieve the leader position of one the busiest ports of Brazil. But, in order to these ports to be with no land access, the State Government, together with the Federal Government and several companies, will construct a new railroad connecting the main terminals of the state, the first to be constructed in decades. The official announcement of US$905.60 million will be made at the beginning of this year.

“Rio is going towards consolidating itself as the major port complex of Brazil. In order to facilitate this modal, we are going to create a new branch of trains that, with the recovery of some tracks, will connect the ports of Açu and Barra do Furtado (in the North of the state), Comperj, Port of Rio and Itaguaí’s terminals”, stated Júlio Lopes, state secretary of Transports.

He stated that all modeling is being performed by Agência Nacional de Transportes Terrestres (ANTT – National Land Transport Agency). The Federal State Company responsible for this work is Valec, and it is going to be financial part is going to be supported by companies like Petrobras, EBX, Vale, FCA and MRS.

“Comperj is going to be a reality and Petrobras saw that the best way to link the complex to other companies and to the main customer of Brazil, São Paulo, is by train”, said the secretary.
Railroad will have 350 km and it will be controlled by several companies.

The railroad will be called EF-354; it shall have 350 kilometers of extension and it shall enable the transit of trains with large and small gauges. Yet, it will be the first Brazilian experience involving one railroad and several operators.

“We have a survey that points out that more than 300 heavy trucks per day shall travel in our roads by the time Comperj is ready. We are not able to support this because this is an estimative; it is possible that more than 700 trucks travel in one day. We have to seek solutions for it.”

Rio shall have the second-biggest offshore base of Petrobras.

Besides the new railroad, the state prioritizes Port of Rio’s expansion. One of the main projects is 21st Century Port (Porto Século 21), which will help to organize local transit, to socially recover the area near it and to increase the storage area. Together with the State Secretariat of Transportation and Economic Development, it will be created also a truck center at Caju and next to the City Hall, Docas Company, Petrobras, Libra and Multi-terminals.

Júlio Bueno, secretary of Economic Development, Energy, Industry and Services for the State of Rio de Janeiro highlighted that it is invested more than US$546.15 million in Port of Rio. According to him, the resources are fundamental to receive bigger vessels.

“Port of Rio shall be second-biggest offshore base of Petrobras. Currently, the port operates with half of its capacity”, says the secretary.

Although Port of Rio is not the busiest port of the country, it is the port where the freight has the highest value added (US$1,580 per ton, higher than the national average of US$483/ton), according to State Government.

It will be also an increase on movement capacity due to EBX Group’s ports, owned by Eike Batista. Port of Açu, located at the North part of Rio de Janeiro, will reach its full capacity of 350 million tons per year, or 41% of Brazilian movement during 2010. And there is Southeast port, specialized in iron ore, which will have capacity for 50 million tons per year and already counts on a project for doubling its movement.