Cade: ship valets become the target of investigation – 05/22/2023 – Panel SA

Cade (Administrative Council for Economic Defense) has opened an inquiry to investigate the alleged formation of a cartel among pilots who earn up to R$300,000 a month to park large ships in the country’s ports.

Known as practical, these professionals are part of a club that is now regulated by the government. Hiring is a legal imposition and the activity is controlled by the Navy.

Cade’s technicians are investigating whether there are barriers to the entry of interested parties into this group. They also want to find out if they share the market and therefore charge high prices.

Agribusiness sectors complain about the lack of professionals and the impossibility of hiring them freely, which, in their view, increases the price.

Today, the vast majority of pilots act as members of the same association, which closes contracts with the various shipowners in the market.

In addition to the lack of professionals, there is also a rotation schedule managed by the maritime authority.

For Ricardo Falcão, president of the Praticagem do Brasil association, critics want to believe that the activity has an impact on freight prices and that, also for this reason, it should be a completely private activity.

“The cost of the activity represents less than 0.1% of the total load”, he said. “There is nothing in the Brazilian model that transgresses the international standard.”

He also states that the activity takes place through an association because, individually, the investment for a pilot to act alone is very high.

“You need to buy a boat, safety equipment, various items that end up being purchased by the association. The pilot’s gain, in the end, is his participation in the result, as if he were a shareholder in a company.”

With Diego Felix

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