More than three months after breaking up with Odebrecht, Transnordestina Logística SA (TLSA), a subsidiary of the National Steel Company (CSN), is closing the contracts with the contractors who will take on the next few weeks the concessionaire works, a 1,728 km railroad that will connect the Suape (Pernambuco) and Pecém (Ceará) harbors to the municipality of Eliseu Martins (Piauí).
According to what Valor PRO – Valor’s real-time information service – has reckoned, at least three constructors have agreed to take line sections of this railroad. Queiroz Galvão will keep some lots in Ceará, while Civilport Engenharia takes a section in Piauí. EIT Engenharia, who participated at the beginning of the railroad, will stay in Pernambuco, a more advanced section.
During a visit to Fortaleza last month, Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff was asked about the progress of Transnordestina, which together with the transposition of River São Francisco and the Abreu e Lima Refinery, form the group of the large federal projects in the Northeast, all with exceeded deadlines and costs much higher than originally estimated. Without much conviction, Dilma said that the work was on progress.
What was in progress, however, was only the closing of the contract between TLSA and Odebrecht, broken after mutual accusations of agreement breach. Before leaving the project, Odebrecht had pledged to finish some works, for instance a tunnel in the Pernambuco municipality of Arcoverde and a railroad section on the border between Ceará and Pernambuco. The rest of the work, currently with budget updated to R$7.5 billion (Brazilian Reais), is stopped.
Valor found out from sources close to the project that CSN’s expectation is to have at least 4,000 people working in the railroad works in the coming weeks. Until June next year, the goal is that 8,000 workers are in activity. The work peak, between 2010 and 2011, recorded 11,000 workers in all railroad lots.
Amongst the main problems faced by the project is the lack of harmony between TLSA and the federal government, a major financier of this railroad. The following increases in labor, expropriation and equipment costs were not approved by the government at the speed expected by the company, which resulted in non-payment to suppliers, strikes and, consequently, schedule delays.
Under the shareholders agreement defined at the project’s launch in 2005, CSN would participate with a 25% equity on the R$4.5 billion budgeted at the time for the railroad. The rest would be financed by the Northeast Development Fund (FDNE) and the Northeast Investment Fund (Finor), as well as lower intakes from Banco do Nordeste, BNDESPar and Valec, the last two partners in the project.
A new shareholder agreement was signed this year, enabling the budget adjustment to the current R$7.5 billion. According to government sources, in June R$600 million were transferred from FDNE. Last month, another R$400 million were released. The new agreement with TLSA will be stricter with deadlines, and can result in financial penalties to the railroad operation.
Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wanted to ride on Transnordestina before leaving office in 2010. Lula’s successor, Dilma, will only have a chance if re-elected. The new deadline for operation start of the railroad was marked for 2015.
Sought, the constructors that take on the works reported that clarifications on the project should be provided only by CSN, who declined to comment.
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