Porto Itapoá (SC) invests in technology and containers – 06/17/2023 – Market

Installed on the north coast of Santa Catarina, the company Porto Itapoá, a private terminal focused on cargo handling in containers, has made robust investments in technology and in the expansion of its yard, with an eye on the potential of the region where it has been operating for 12 years, in Babitonga bay.

Although the company points out bottlenecks in the region, such as the need to duplicate highways (SC-416 and SC-417) that interfere with truck traffic, and dredging the access channel to Babitonga Bay, it recorded a turnover of R$ 620 million last year and has been betting on business growth.

Porto Itapoá is close to large cities such as Curitiba (PR) and Joinville (SC) and attracts a clientele that is not covered by the giant next door, the public port of São Francisco do Sul, the largest terminal in Santa Catarina. While the first works only with cargo in containers, the second is a reference in handling agricultural bulk.

The size of the ships that manage to enter Babitonga Bay, however, is among the obstacles pointed out by the port sector for the growth of imports and exports in the region.

The bay of Babitonga is already known for its naturally deep waters, but, like other Brazilian ports, the terminals of Porto Itapoá and São Francisco do Sul also defend the dredging of the access channel.

The idea is to go from the current 14 meters to 16 meters, which would allow the navigation of vessels of up to 366 meters in length.

The cost of the work is estimated at R$ 290 million and fundraising involves companies and public bodies. Ibama has already granted the preliminary license for the work, but the installation license is still under analysis.

The idea is that most of the sediment removed from the dredging process will be used in expanding Itapoá beach, which has been suffering from maritime erosion.

The proposal to build a container terminal in Itapoá emerged in the 1990s, when the Battistella business group, traditional in the wood trade in Santa Catarina, was thinking of a solution to export its own products.

But the idea of ​​restricting the port terminal to private use did not last, in the wake of increased interest from other exporters.

Today, the Battistella group (Portinvest) controls 70% of the terminal. The group alone exports its products to more than 50 countries.

The container terminal came off the drawing board in June 2011 and was installed in the extreme south of Itapoá, interfering less in the landscape of the city center, which has a tourist vocation, with warm water beaches.

But, in more than ten years, port activity has already become the main economic axis of the municipality, which had 14,345 inhabitants in the 2010 Census and jumped to 21,766 in the IBGE estimate made in 2021.

According to Porto Itapoá, the company is currently responsible for more than a thousand direct jobs and around 4,000 indirect jobs.

And the business sector sees room for new businesses in the region.

Among the large companies in the country that are also eyeing the city of Itapoá is the Paraná-based Coamo, the largest agricultural cooperative in Latin America.

It already has an area in the region, where it is studying the implantation of a grain and bran terminal, but it does not reveal deadlines or give details about the investment.

Coamo already has terminals – owned and leased – at the Port of Paranaguá, on the coast of Paraná.

Porto Itapoá claims that, in May, it broke its historical record for container movements in a single month, with 98,113 TEUs (a unit equivalent to a 20-foot container).

Among Porto Itapoá’s recent investments are more than US$ 25 million in the purchase of machines from the Chinese manufacturer ZPMC, which promise to speed up the movement of containers in the terminal.

There are ten large mobile cranes on tires –RTGs, for its acronym in English— operated by remote control, a technology that, according to the company, was still unheard of in port terminals in South America.

“It brings more security to the terminal’s employees and the equipment is hybrid, with fuel consumption three times lower than a conventional RTG, powered only by diesel”, says Porto’s Director of Operations, Sergni Junior.

Of the 10 new RTGs purchased from China, 5 are already at the terminal in Itapoá and another 5 arrive by the end of the year.

In addition to the Chinese cranes, the terminal purchased a portainer (a machine that moves containers between the pier and the ship) with a 70-meter boom. The new equipment, purchased for US$ 11 million last year, should also be delivered this year. The terminal already has six smaller portainers, measuring 55 meters and reaching 65 meters.

Another recent investment is a mobile scanner, purchased for BRL 10 million, which is used to inspect containers. The company claims that the equipment – ​​an HCVM XT ​​model from the British company Smiths Detection – is the first in Brazilian territory.

In addition to equipment, the physical structure of the terminal is also being expanded. By the end of the year, the terminal’s yard will cover 455,000 m² and will be able to hold up to 32,000 20-foot containers, 10,000 more than current capacity.

The pier, which today is 800 meters long, which allows it to receive two ships at the same time, will be longer in the future, with 1,200 meters. According to Ibama, the project is in the process of preparing the EIA/Rima (Environmental Impact Study and Environmental Impact Report).