Brazil's ports face trade demand pressures
For one thing, the country needs to open up bottlenecks and gets ready for a future increase.
Brazil's ports are spending more on infrastructure to increase trade with China, and there is a lot at stake both for the ports, their operators and the country.
Some observers have pointed out that, if international trade continues to grow at today's rate, the country's ports may not be able to handle the load in two years.
The country has 7,491 kilometers of coastline and its ports are the entry and exit point for more than 80 percent of the goods traded.
In 2010, they handled almost 800 million tons of freight. In 2015, the volume is expected to reach more than a billion tons, and a staggering 1.7 billion tons by 2022. So plans now call for increased investment, opening up of bottlenecks, and getting ready for an increase in trade.
Around $17 billion in spending is planned, with $14 billion of that coming from the private sector, and $3 billion from the state. This is expected to be completed by 2015.
This investment may seem to be heavily weighted toward the private sector but, when we consider that Brazil has 34 public maritime ports and 129 private ones, we can begin to appreciate the importance of private sector investment.
