Megaterminal in Santos will have auction with restrictions

The contract will be for 25 years, with an investment of R\$ 6.45 billion in the infrastructure planned for Saboó (Alexsander Ferraz/AT)

The Tribunal de Contas da União (TCU) decided on Monday (8), by six votes to three, that the bidding model for the Terminal de Contêineres (Tecon) Santos 10, at the Saboó quay, will be conducted in two phases. In the first phase, companies that already operate terminals at the Port of Santos and shipping lines (groups that own vessels) are prohibited from participating. These companies would only be allowed to take part in a possible second phase, should there be no interested parties in the first — a remote possibility.

The majority of the TCU followed the vote of the reviewing minister of the case, Bruno Dantas. According to him, incumbent port operators (companies already established in Santos) have competitive advantages that may inhibit the entry of new operators and affect competition. Meanwhile, the participation of shipping lines could create opportunities for market closure and self-preferencing, reducing sector competitiveness and hindering the operation of independent operators, Dantas said. The minister identified risks of market concentration and closure.

Dantas’ recommendation is stricter than the model presented by the Agência Nacional de Transportes Aquaviários (Antaq), which also foresaw two phases but with restrictions only on companies already operating in Santos in the first phase, without mentioning shipping lines.

“The restriction in the first phase is not a violation of the economic freedom law; it is the implementation of the constitutional duty to curb the abuse of economic power”, Dantas explained, arguing that “the problem is not vertical integration per se”, but the need to attract a “white-flag” terminal to the port, capable of expanding competition and lowering freight costs by enabling new services from independent shipping lines.

Dantas also recommended that the Ministério de Portos e Aeroportos (MPor) define a minimum concession fee (the amount to be paid by the winning bidder to the government) “to ensure an adequate return to the public treasury and a balance between competitiveness and the value of the asset.”

Rapporteur defended open bidding The reporting minister for the case at the TCU, Antonio Anastasia, had already expressed his vote in favor of a single-phase, open tender with broad competition on November 18, when the trial began and was postponed. Two other ministers joined his vote yesterday.

“The more bidders we have, the more alternatives we will have. The winning bidder will only sign the lease contract for Tecon Santos 10 if it first completes the divestment (renouncing its current contract)”, Anastasia noted, adding that “it will be difficult, but feasible.”

Anastasia based his vote on the opinion of the Auditoria Especializada em Portos e Ferrovias (AudPortoFerrovia) of the TCU — attached to the case file. The audit concluded that the competitive risks associated with vertical integration are not sufficiently relevant to justify excluding incumbent shipping lines (those with existing contracts at the port) from the auction, a position supported by the Subsecretaria de Acompanhamento Econômico e Regulação (Seae) of the Ministério da Fazenda.

Anastasia reiterated that “the issue of vertical integration was not evaluated during the process” and warned that “bringing in, at this stage, a topic that was dismissed by all regulatory agencies would amount to innovating beyond the regulatory authority itself.”

After the TCU’s review, the documentation will return to Antaq and MPor for adjustments and, finally, publication of the tender notice. Once the bidding round is launched, interested companies will have up to 30 days to submit proposals.

The asset Tecon Santos 10 will occupy an area of 621,900 square meters at the Saboó quay in the Port of Santos, designed for the operation of 3.25 million TEUs (a unit equivalent to a 20-foot container) and 91,000 tonnes of general cargo. The contract will run for 25 years, with R\$ 6.45 billion in infrastructure investments. The concession fee, expected to exceed R\$ 1 billion, will fund the aquatic infrastructure of the future passenger terminal in Valongo. The megaterminal will increase container-handling capacity at the largest port in the Southern Hemisphere by 50%; the port could reach saturation by 2028 if capacity is not expanded.