Five groups continue competing for Tecon, from CSN

The National Metallurgical Company (CSN) has chosen five out of ten proposals to continue the dispute for the purchase of Sepetiba Tecon – the container terminal that the company operates in the port of Itaguaí (RJ).Still in the running are: the worldwide giant of port operations PSA, from Singapore; the Chilean SAAM; Terminal Link (connected to the French shipping company CMA CGM); and the Brazilian Santos Brasil and Multiterminais, Valor has assessed.

When contacted, CSN did not comment until the closing of this edition. Proposals by the companies interested in taking Sepetiba Tecon should be by mid-March.

As Valor anticipated, ten companies have made non-binding offers (offers that can be adjusted). Including LOGZ, port assets manager, and Wilson Sons, logistics operator.

A company contracted by the metallurgical company owned by the businessman Benjamin Steinbruch has evaluated Sepetiba Tecon between 1.2 and 1.5 billion BRL. The amount takes into account that the end of the lease will be renewed by the government for another 25 years, a process still under analysis by the Port Secretariat (SEP).

Terminal sale is part of CSN’s effort to reduce debt. In addition to the container, participation in two hydroelectric power plants, 17% of share of the total capital Usiminas and surplus shares of MRS Logística railroad were put up for sale. The banks Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Bradesco and Banco do Brasil were hired to negotiate the assets.
The terminal has an area of 400 thousand square meters and 810 meters of waterfront. The annual handling capacity is 650 thousand TEUs (standard 20-foot container). In 2014, the terminal shipped about 247 thousand TEUs, 30% less than the previous year.

Sepetiba Tecon is considered strategic for not having draft restrictions, making it a potential “hub port”, the so-called concentrators, ports of major international shipping lines. Since the big ships cannot afford to go into all the ports, they port only at some of them, the hubs, where the loads are redistributed into smaller ships to their final destinations, in the case of imports. For exports, the cargo flow happens from smaller ports to hubs.

With the inauguration of the Panamá Channel expansion, scheduled for April, it is estimated that the coming of larger vessels to South America will be accelerated.

After inauguration, in 2014, of the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Ring, the railroad access to Itaguaí has improved, adding more value to Sepetiba Tecon.

Another benefit from the terminal is that it is away from urban area, an advantage over its neighbor from Rio de Janeiro, the Rio port, where there is an additional issue: navigation channel restrictions that limit the size of vessels capable of entering the port.

Multiterminais, one of the companies interested in the terminal, operates the Rio installation. As well as Libra, that even studied the asset, but didn’t perform the purchase offer.

Entrepreneurs estimate that, despite the crisis, which affects the cargo volume, investments in the sector are a long-term bet.