Santos Brasil introduces Tecon Imbituba´s potential to the Rio Grande do Sul market

Executives from Santos Brasil - a leader in providing port and logistics services for the container chain - met today with the Rio Grande do Sul business community to present the strategic advantages of the Imbituba container terminal that the Company has operated for nine years in Santa Catarina.

Porto Alegre exporters and importers participated in the event, together with Santos Brasil Commercial Director Marcos Tourinho and Operations Director Marlos Tavares, and representatives of SCPar, which administrates the Santa Catarina port.

Santos Brasil is headquartered in São Paulo, and wishes to attract the interest especially of companies in Porto Alegre and the North of the State, offering efficient services and significant differentials. One of them is the new long-haul navigation service to Asia, which will begin on September 1 with weekly stopovers to serve the entire market in the country´s South. There will be 13 dedicated vessels, including the Hyundai Loyalty, currently the largest container ship to operate on the Brazilian coast.

"The company is focusing on developing business with exporters/importers in Rio Grande do Sul, a state that has a strong agribusiness and good possibilities in other markets, such as the petrochemical center, the metalworking center, automobiles, plastic derivatives and the tobacco industry, as well as agricultural machinery", Tourinho explains. "We want to create a new logistics alternative for cargo in the South of the country with a very attractive cost-benefit".

The Imbituba container terminal is privileged for being located in an open sea, deep-water cove. This means that it can receive the largest ships already operating on the Brazilian coast. "The trend in the shipping market is for increasingly larger ships, with cost savings and economies of scale for all involved", adds the executive.

Those large ships have no access restriction in Imbituba, whether in draft (depth) or in bad weather. It is a port with a low history of bar closure from bad weather. "Service reliability is critical for foreign trade", stresses Operation Director Marlos Tavares.

In addition, the Port of Imbituba is the most competitive one in the region from a financial standpoint, with logistics and port costs around 30% lower than those of its competitors. Its location in southern Santa Catarina State is strategic, as it is equidistant from Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul State) and Curitiba (Paraná State) by about 360 km, and is 90 km away from Florianópolis, with easy access by the BR-101 highway and the regional rail network.