Minas Port inaugurated two warehouses with a total capacity to store 70,000 tons of soybeans and corn; Goiás will also benefit from the novelty.
With an eye on the productive capacity of agribusiness, especially in Minas Gerais and Goiás, the Minas Port group inaugurated on Thursday (4) two new storage warehouses with a total area of 12,800 m² and the capacity to store up to 70,000 tons of grain – the equivalent of about a thousand trucks full of corn or soybeans. The space had an investment of R$104 million and is part of the Multicargo Terminal (T-MULT) – one of the 11 terminals of the Port of Açu, a private company located in São João da Barra, in the north of Rio de Janeiro.
With the new spaces, the estimate is that 500,000 tons of grain will be handled in 2024, up from 200,000 tons in 2023. The expectation for 2025 is even bolder: 3 million tons of grain. According to Marcelo Marra, CEO of the Minas Port group, the new structure promises to make the handling of this cargo even more competitive.
“One of the biggest difficulties, especially in public ports, is the queues for unloading. In 2023 alone, around R$3 billion was paid in ship stays at the ports of Santos and Paranaguá. With the warehouses, we will reduce the very high cost paid by the entire chain,” he says.
In addition to the two warehouses, a 14,000 m² area was also inaugurated for storing various products – such as solid fuels and some types of raw material for the cement and lime factories. Marcelo also reveals that this area is part of a new transport logistics that will be carried out to increase efficiency and reduce costs for the producer.
From now on, the company’s fleet of trucks will enter the port bringing grain to be stored in the warehouses and will also carry out reverse logistics, bringing solid fuel and fertilizers to be distributed mainly in Minas Gerais and Goiás.
“Two trips will be made on the same route, which will reduce freight costs for customers and increase productivity via road transportation. Logistics partners will have an automated system to speed up the loading and unloading process, increasing the efficiency of the operation. We estimate that this logistics system will generate 20% savings for producers.”
Plans for the future
The new spaces at the port have barely been inaugurated and Minas Port already has future plans for the site. According to Marcelo, the company’s next step is to install the first fertilizer mixing plant inside a port in the country.
The project will have investments of around R$200 million and operations are expected to begin in October 2025 – handling 850 million tons of fertilizer a year.
“This is another agribusiness problem that we’re going to try to solve. Currently, the inputs arrive at the ports, go to the factories to be mixed and only then reach the producers – greatly increasing the cost. By carrying out this process at the port, we will deliver a more cost-effective product to the end consumer,” says Marcelo.
“Failure of the competition motivated us”
Eugenio Figueiredo, CEO of the Port of Açu, says that it wasn’t in the company’s plans to enter the world of agribusiness. However, the “inefficient operation” of the competition led to the plans being revised.
“Every year we see the same images in the media of ships waiting to dock at ports, which ends up delaying operations and generating high costs. To give you an idea, it costs more to take soy from Mato Grosso to the Port of Santos than it does to transport the same soy from the port to China. All this motivated us to get into the game,” he says.
According to him, the port is now proving to be a more efficient logistical alternative to increase the competitiveness of industries and agribusiness in the Southeast and Midwest. “The proximity of the warehouses to the terminal also guarantees greater efficiency for the whole operation,” he says.
The businessman says there are plans to build an exclusive grain terminal at the port, but no dates have yet been set.
“We see it as inevitable, as the volume grows over the next few years. Today, we have a financial and time cost to sanitize the shed, since we can’t store soybeans where another completely different product was stored. Having a terminal dedicated to grains would increase efficiency even more.”
Entering the grain market is promising not only for agribusiness in Minas Gerais and Goiás, but also for increasing business within the terminal. This is because, unlike other terminals, which operate with just one segment (such as oil or iron ore), T-MULT works with several products. In addition to grains, iron ore briquettes, lithium and salt received by cabotage are also on this list.
“In 2023, T-MULT handled 2.1 million tons in total, an increase of 33% compared to 2022. Last year we also won over seven new customers, bringing our portfolio to a total of 55,” he says.
It is also expected that, as of next year, the terminal will gain a new area that will allow two ships to operate simultaneously, increasing handling to 2.7 million tons a year – which could reach 5 million in the future.
Minas is powerful, but there are still challenges
It’s no coincidence that the Port of Açu is also known as the “Port of Minas Gerais”. Around 60% of the traffic handled at T-MULT comes from clients in Minas Gerais. The state is also important in other terminals.
“This is where Anglo American’s Minas Rio System pipeline flows, over 500 kilometers from Conceição do Mato Dentro, in the Middle Espinhaço, cutting through 33 municipalities until it reaches the port. That’s around 26 tons of ore a year,” Eugenio points out.
When it comes to land transportation, he says that the proximity to the BR-356 highway is an advantage, but that “a rail connection would be very important”.
“There is an advanced project to build a railroad linking Cariacica, in Espírito Santo, to the Duque de Caxias Refinery (Reduc), in Rio de Janeiro. The rail corridor is divided into several sections. One of them is 41 kilometers long and will be built by the Port of Açu itself, with an authorized investment of R$610 million, which will be able to connect the port complex’s terminals to São João da Barra – including internal branches,” he says.
The upper end of the rail network, from Cariacica to Anchieta, will be built by Vale and has guaranteed funds from the early renewal of the concession contract for the Vitória-Minas Railroad (EFVM).
Ecological arm
With a total area of 130 km², the equivalent of one and a half Manhattan Islands, the Port of Açu reserves 40 km² of this space for the Caruara Reserve – born in 2012, two years before the port itself began operating.
“Initially, we thought of this area to install the port. However, we identified the presence of the restinga, a coastal ecosystem that develops between the mainland and the sea and which was quite degraded. That’s when we decided to create the reserve,” says Caio Cunha, port relations manager at Reserva Caruara.
According to him, more than R$30 million has been invested in the site since the project began and 573 species of fauna have been catalogued in the reserve. The company also grows around 500,000 seedlings a year of 92 native species in nurseries – many of which are sold to other companies.
“A year and a half ago we decided to open it up to visitors, encouraging environmental education. We’ve already received around 30,000 visitors, mainly students on school trips. It’s a significant number, if we take into account that the municipality of São João da Barra, where we are located, has 35,000 inhabitants,” he says
Since its inception, the reserve has also had a partnership with the Tamar Project, which runs a sea turtle monitoring program – contributing to the preservation of various species.
“There have already been more than 1 million chicks released into the sea. This year alone, 133,000 chicks have hatched. Activities in ports, including dredging, are also designed not to impact on the lives of these animals. It is possible for economic exploitation and sustainability to go hand in hand,” he says.
*Reporter traveled at the invitation of the Port of Açu.
By Rodrigo Oliveira
Published on July 04, 2024 | 18:08 – Updated on July 04, 2024 | 18:44
Source: O Tempo
News Link: economia/2024/7/4/com-foco-no-agro–empresa-mineira-investe-r–104-milhoes-em-expa
