Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has 15 working days to promulgate the Ports law. She holds the prerogative to veto parts of the bill and many expect she will.
Brazilian congress passes port reform, but president likely to dilute it NOW that Brazil's Port Reform Bill has received congressional approval, private terminals should be allowed to handle third party cargo and terminal concessions should be issued on the lowest user tariffs rather the highest bidder, reports London's Drewry Maritime Advisors.
But Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has 15 working days to promulgate the law. She holds the prerogative to veto parts of the bill and many expect she will.
During the bill's difficult, March and April witnessed a spectacular all-time high in port congestion, bottlenecks and queues both in the maritime and the land-side access to piers.
Up to 80 idle vessels have been counted on any given day at Santos anchorage, waiting for berths, while at the same time 10-12 kilometre long truck queues paralysed road access to the city, industrial and port areas on both banks of the port, said the Drewry report.
As it stands the bill said the federal government remains in control of the promotion and authorisation of new private terminal projects and new concessions in the public ports.
But local and state authorities now running public ports can organise public tenders for future concessions in their own planning zones.
The bill makes it compulsory for private terminals to use casual labour for stevedoring.
"These eleven months of indecision have frozen many new project developments, on the grounds of heightened regulatory risks induced by the prevailing legal uncertainty" said Drewry senior advisor Michel Donner.
"The complete and final new set of rules will allow a broader circle of interested parties to sharpen their pencils, redo their calculations and prepare the new port investments the country so badly needs," he said.
"The changes are likely to contribute to unlock the long awaited capacity expansion of the port system, and will bring up a host of new business opportunities for private investors," he said.
"Realistically, however, it still takes four to seven years for greenfield projects to be commissioned, so the expected new wave of port projects will probably not be ready in time to alleviate next years' congestion peaks in Paranagua or Santos, Mr Donner said.
