* by Pedro Brito

Last year Brazil celebrated 200 years of opening its ports to friendly nations, developing a series of socio-cultural activities throughout the country, showing the importance of this event which substantially changed our history. We ourselves were at several events and in various ports in Brazil, highlighting the significance of port activity for the development of the country, in that we know that about 95% of the movement of imports and exports pass through our ports. 

We took advantage to make a diagnosis of each of the ports of Brazil. We worked a lot in this direction in 2008 but didn’t complete the effort, although we have received the recognition of important representatives of the national port segment, which considered 2008 ’very useful’, starting from the creation of the Special Secretariat of Ports by President Luiz Inacio da Silva in 2007. The year 2008, in the understanding of these leaders, including port workers, was ’extremely positive’, from the time there was a change of paradigm in Brazil’s port policy. The repercussions of the creation of SEP were important, because ’never before has the port activity been so discussed in Brazil’.

 
We noticed that the ports are an example of how public - private partnership could work, in that it establishes a level of serious dialogue, transparent, mature. Without forgetting the big lessons of the past, we are more concerned about developing actions that allow an up-grade in our ports, the prospect of putting them among the most competitive in the world. We intend to assure the port sector increased reliability and efficiency, improvements in performance, low operating costs, and lower tariffs for users, with the adoption of a clear and perennial policy.

This year we intend to be able to plan our ports for the next 5, 10, and 30 years, according to the new world economic order. Indeed, for us at SEP, the future already started from the moment that, through the insured resources provided by the Accelerated Growth Program - PAC, we are putting in the market announcements for hiring a company (or consortium of companies) to perform dredging services for the 16 main Brazilian ports, essential work to speed up the operations of loading and unloading of goods. 

Shares of the SEP, however, are already arriving at Ceará in Fortaleza. Last Friday (9) the Federal Official Gazette published the bid for the dredging works of the port of Mucuripe, which will have its depth expanded from 11.5 m to 14m and its channel extended from the current 11.5 m to 12.5, when about 6 million m3 of sediment will be removed. This will mean the presence of ships almost double the size of those that currently pass through Mucuripe, thus making it more attractive.