Tecon Santos 10 auction confirmed by April 30

The new terminal will cover an area of 621 thousand square meters and will be dedicated to the handling and storage of containers and general cargo, expanding port capacity (Vanessa Rodrigues/AT/Arquivo)

The auction of the Container Terminal (Tecon) Santos 10, located at the Saboó quay (STS10) in the Porto de Santos, will be held by April 30. The announcement was made by the Minister of Portos e Aeroportos, Silvio Costa Filho, on Wednesday (14) in Brasília, during the presentation of the Ministry’s 2025 performance report and the project agenda for 2026. In December last year, the Federal Government had promised the auction for March.

Last Monday, the Ministério de Portos e Aeroportos (MPor) set the minimum concession fee (the amount the winning bidder must pay to the government) at R\$ 500 million for the auction of the asset, in line with a recommendation from the Tribunal de Contas da União (TCU).

The minister stated that MPor’s technical team plans to present the project in February at the Bolsa de Valores de São Paulo (B3) to 11 or 12 interested investors. “There are three or four national groups interested, and the rest are foreign — Chinese, Filipino, American, among others,” he said.

Progress

According to Costa Filho, the schedule provides for the launch of the bid notice in March and the auction in April. The winning bidder will be the company that offers the highest concession fee. The concession term will be 25 years. “Our expectation is that by April 30 we will be able to hold the Tecon Santos 10 auction at B3. It will be the largest auction in Brazil’s history,” he emphasized.

The minister also revealed that preparations for the auction began to be discussed last Tuesday, during a meeting attended by the Executive Secretary of Portos e Aeroportos, Tomé Franca, and the National Secretary of Ports (SNP), Alex Ávila. “We expect to present the Tecon Santos 10 schedule to Brazil’s productive sector and to the press by Wednesday (January 21),” he added.

The minister also said that the project will be discussed in depth next week at the Agência Nacional de Transportes Aquaviários (Antaq) and at MPor “so that we can present a detailed schedule.”

The auction will be carried out in two stages, with a ban on the participation of shipping lines (shipowners) and companies that already operate container terminals in Santos in the first phase. They would only be allowed to participate in a potential second stage if there are no interested parties in the first, provided that they waive their current contracts in order to assume the new lease. The Ministry’s justification, which follows guidance from Antaq and recommendations from the TCU, is to avoid market concentration.

The terminal

Tecon Santos 10 will occupy an area of 621.9 thousand square meters (m²) in the Porto de Santos, with an expected operation of 3.25 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) and 91 thousand tons of general cargo. The projected investment for the site totals R\$ 6.45 billion. According to the project, four ship berths will be built for loading and unloading operations.

According to MPor, the terminal could expand container handling capacity at Brazil’s main port by 50%, which is expected to reach 9 million TEUs per year. Estimates indicate that Santos is expected to reach saturation by 2028.

Tecon Santos 10 auction postponed to April, says Minister Silvio Costa Filho of Portos e Aeroportos; bid notice to be launched in March

The Ministério de Portos e Aeroportos (MPor) highlighted that the Tecon Santos 10 auction will feature an innovative modeling approach, specifically regarding the concession fee. MPor will adopt the recommendations of the TCU, including the establishment of a minimum concession fee, “whose main objective is to balance the asset’s attractiveness to the market with the receipt of a reasonable minimum concession fee for the public treasury, compatible with the size of the project.” The amount was set at R\$ 500 million.

Concession fee

The new terminal will cover an area of 621 thousand square meters and will be dedicated to the handling and storage of containers and general cargo, expanding port capacity.