THE increasing usage of rail transport in moving containers at Brazil's Terminal de Conteineres de Paranagua (TCP), also known as Paranagua, is playing a major role in helping the facility to maintain its title of being the 'chicken export port capital of the world'.
'We currently move about 15 per cent of our boxes by railroad and that's the highest utilisation of railroad by a container terminal in Brazil today and probably the highest in all South America too. And that is a big advantage for our shippers,' said Luiz Antonio Rodrigues Alves, CEO of Terminal de Conteineres de Paranagua.
Mr Alves underscored the importance of the intermodal rail connections to TCP, of which China Merchants Port Holdings Company (CMPort) owns 90 per cent, in its quest to keep Paranagua as the world's top chicken exporter. Further, it also has aspirations of becoming a key hub port for the East Coast of South America (ECSA).
That 15 per cent rail transport stat might not sound like much to European and North American shippers and transport providers, but in South America it is very high. Competitor ports like the Port of Santos - South America's largest container port (volume: 3.85 million TEU in 2017) - usually transport less than 2 per cent of containers by rail; and many are at just 1 per cent, despite various government efforts to increase this share, IHS Media reported.
'Bringing in cargo by railroad is between 20 per cent and 30 per cent cheaper than truck and that is a big advantage,' Mr Alves said. 'And now we are trying to encourage and incentivise as many more shippers as possible to use the railroad as we can.'
During the first six months of this year TCP handled 277,510 TEU of full boxes, up 9 per cent from the 253,778 TEU handled during the same period of 2017. With empty containers and transshipment coming in at 102,657 TEU from January 1 to the end of June, down 13 per cent, that suggests that shippers have a better-balanced trading scenario and therefore more profitability.
TCP also said that during the first six months 2018 they handled 68,614 TEU of meat (including beef, as well as chicken and pork), while Santos handled only 48,419 TEU. That gave TCP a 32 per cent share of national meat exports, with Santos second with 23 per cent. TCP's market share totalled 29 percent in 2017.
According to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Paranagua is the 22nd largest container terminal in Latin America, trailing Brazil's Navegantes (20th with 811,905 TEU handled in 2017), as well as Santos (number two in Latin America), and Panama's Colon-MIT/Evergreen (1st with 3.89 million TEU).
Each year, Paranagua vies with the Itajai Port Complex (Navegantes and APM Terminals Itajai) for the title of 'chicken export port capital of the world'. Market leaders such as BRF, JBS, and Marfrig are among the major white meat exporters who use TCP, and their rail container transport percentage is understood to have increased during the truckers' strike and since. Around 125,000 TEU of white meat is expected to be shipped through TCP this year, most of it arriving by rail.
Further, the rail share at TCP - Brazil's third biggest box terminal with 752,250 TEU handled last year, up from 725,051 TEU in 2016 - looks like it will increase again this year in the wake of the Brazilian truckers' strike.
With this in mind, TCP has taken up an offer from Brasilia to extend its concession agreement another 25 years - ending in 2048 - and has thus embarked on a BRL550 million (US$140.6 million) expansion and upgrade plan that will increase capacity 60 per cent from the current 1.5 million TEU to 2.4 million TEU per year by the end of 2019. TCP has already spent $113 million between 2012 and 2016 doubling capacity from 750,000 TEU per year.
In February, work started on the new mooring berth, which will be expanded by 220 metres (721 feet) to 1,099 metres, and two, new super post-Panama gantry cranes have been ordered from China manufacturer ZPMC and are due for delivery in late 2019.
TCP's port also is being deepened frm 12.3 meters to 13.3 meters and with a tidal variation of 1.5 meters to 2 meters - something that should allow selected mega-ships (up to 12,000 TEU) currently calling on ECSA to berth. Mr Alves added that a project to dredge 15 meters also is on the table with the port authority, APPA, and the Brazil Navy.
'We currently move about 15 per cent of our boxes by railroad and that's the highest utilisation of railroad by a container terminal in Brazil today and probably the highest in all South America too. And that is a big advantage for our shippers,' said Luiz Antonio Rodrigues Alves, CEO of Terminal de Conteineres de Paranagua.
Mr Alves underscored the importance of the intermodal rail connections to TCP, of which China Merchants Port Holdings Company (CMPort) owns 90 per cent, in its quest to keep Paranagua as the world's top chicken exporter. Further, it also has aspirations of becoming a key hub port for the East Coast of South America (ECSA).
That 15 per cent rail transport stat might not sound like much to European and North American shippers and transport providers, but in South America it is very high. Competitor ports like the Port of Santos - South America's largest container port (volume: 3.85 million TEU in 2017) - usually transport less than 2 per cent of containers by rail; and many are at just 1 per cent, despite various government efforts to increase this share, IHS Media reported.
'Bringing in cargo by railroad is between 20 per cent and 30 per cent cheaper than truck and that is a big advantage,' Mr Alves said. 'And now we are trying to encourage and incentivise as many more shippers as possible to use the railroad as we can.'
During the first six months of this year TCP handled 277,510 TEU of full boxes, up 9 per cent from the 253,778 TEU handled during the same period of 2017. With empty containers and transshipment coming in at 102,657 TEU from January 1 to the end of June, down 13 per cent, that suggests that shippers have a better-balanced trading scenario and therefore more profitability.
TCP also said that during the first six months 2018 they handled 68,614 TEU of meat (including beef, as well as chicken and pork), while Santos handled only 48,419 TEU. That gave TCP a 32 per cent share of national meat exports, with Santos second with 23 per cent. TCP's market share totalled 29 percent in 2017.
According to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Paranagua is the 22nd largest container terminal in Latin America, trailing Brazil's Navegantes (20th with 811,905 TEU handled in 2017), as well as Santos (number two in Latin America), and Panama's Colon-MIT/Evergreen (1st with 3.89 million TEU).
Each year, Paranagua vies with the Itajai Port Complex (Navegantes and APM Terminals Itajai) for the title of 'chicken export port capital of the world'. Market leaders such as BRF, JBS, and Marfrig are among the major white meat exporters who use TCP, and their rail container transport percentage is understood to have increased during the truckers' strike and since. Around 125,000 TEU of white meat is expected to be shipped through TCP this year, most of it arriving by rail.
Further, the rail share at TCP - Brazil's third biggest box terminal with 752,250 TEU handled last year, up from 725,051 TEU in 2016 - looks like it will increase again this year in the wake of the Brazilian truckers' strike.
With this in mind, TCP has taken up an offer from Brasilia to extend its concession agreement another 25 years - ending in 2048 - and has thus embarked on a BRL550 million (US$140.6 million) expansion and upgrade plan that will increase capacity 60 per cent from the current 1.5 million TEU to 2.4 million TEU per year by the end of 2019. TCP has already spent $113 million between 2012 and 2016 doubling capacity from 750,000 TEU per year.
In February, work started on the new mooring berth, which will be expanded by 220 metres (721 feet) to 1,099 metres, and two, new super post-Panama gantry cranes have been ordered from China manufacturer ZPMC and are due for delivery in late 2019.
TCP's port also is being deepened frm 12.3 meters to 13.3 meters and with a tidal variation of 1.5 meters to 2 meters - something that should allow selected mega-ships (up to 12,000 TEU) currently calling on ECSA to berth. Mr Alves added that a project to dredge 15 meters also is on the table with the port authority, APPA, and the Brazil Navy.