Mercadante defends BNDES investment in ship construction

The president of BNDES, Aloizio Mercadante, once again defended the bank’s investment in ship construction. In an interview published this Sunday (28) in the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, he stated that criticism of the plan, announced this week, comes from an “anachronistic neoliberalism”, out of step with changes in the global economy.

“We have a challenging and totally new scenario, because the production of engines with renewable energy is a new topic. We need to have the ambition to compete in the market, and it will be essential to have a fleet with renewable fuel”, he told Coluna do Estadão.

Last Wednesday (24), Mercadante gathered the press in Rio de Janeiro to announce that, this year, the BNDES will disburse R$2 billion from the Merchant Marine Fund to invest in shipyards. It was criticized by economists, who recalled that, in Lula’s first terms, the government failed in its attempt to reactivate the shipping industry – companies went bankrupt and public money was drained in corruption schemes, uncovered by Lava Jato.

The minister now argues that the International Maritime Organization, linked to the UN, has established that, by 2030, 40% of the world’s maritime fleet will have to use renewable fuel, and that it will be able to fine ships that still use fossil fuel. This, according to him, is an opportunity for Brazil. In his calculations, if Brazilian vessels are overtaxed, national soybeans could become 15% to 30% more expensive for export.

“There is a dispute in the reorganization of value chains. We need to have the ambition to compete for it. As we have a clean energy matrix and we have a great leadership in ethanol and biofuels, Brazil can come out ahead,” he told Estadão.

He guaranteed that there will be no contributions from the Treasury to finance the shipping industry and that the loans will have spread (difference between the interest charged and the funding rate) reduced, thus reducing BNDES’ profit from operations. Managed by BNDES, the Merchant Marine Fund is formed with resources from a federal tax charged on sea freight.

Investments in the naval industry are part of an industrial plan that foresees investments of R$300 billion by 2026 – the majority, R$250 billion, will come from BNDES.