Santos Brasil proposes R$3.5 billion investment to expand terminals in Santos

Santos Brasil submitted to the Santos Port Authority (APS) an integrated investment plan of approximately R$3.5 billion to expand the capacity of its two terminals located on the left bank of the Port of Santos: the Vehicle Terminal (TEV) and Tecon Santos.

Under the project, TEV would increase its capacity to 360 thousand vehicles per year, a 16% rise, and would add 239 thousand tonnes per year of general and project cargo. Tecon Santos, for its part, would expand its capacity by 1 million TEUs, a 33% increase, reaching 4 million TEUs per year.

The new investment cycle is linked to the possibility of an early renewal of the TEV contract, and its execution depends on approval from APS, the National Waterway Transportation Agency (Antaq) and the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU). Among the main works planned are the extension of the Tecon berth by 400 meters, the expansion of the container storage yard by 200 thousand m², the extension of the TEV berth by 190 meters, and the installation of mooring dolphins at that terminal.

The plan also envisages reorganizing the areas the company already operates on the port's left bank and developing the Prainha area for port activities, through the replacement and densification of spaces. The land, owned by the Federal Government (Uniao), lies between TEV, the railway line and the estuary, and the Guaruja City Hall, the State Government and APS are jointly carrying out the gradual relocation of families living there in conditions of socioeconomic vulnerability to housing developments in the region.

Santos Brasil's CEO, Antonio Carlos Sepulveda, stated that the company maintains a long-term commitment to the expansion of the Port of Santos and that the proposal creates a relatively fast growth vector, with the potential to generate capacity for the market ahead of other already planned investments. Jornal Portuario also noted that, over its 29 years of operation, Santos Brasil has already invested more than R$5.5 billion in Santos, and that in the previous cycle, launched in 2019 following the early extension of the Tecon Santos contract, it committed to investing around R$3 billion to raise the terminal's capacity to 3 million TEUs per year by 2030, of which more than R$2.5 billion has already been invested, with current capacity standing at 2.9 million TEUs per year.