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The boundaries of the organised port of Santos have been reshaped.
The change
On 29 June 2020, Brazil’s Ministry of Infrastructure issued Ordinance 77/2020 redefining the jurisdictional limits of Santos’ public port and infrastructure under the management of the Santos Port Authority (SPA).
The new port traverse, a polygonal chain comprising port accesses, berths, leased facilities, and areas for expanding the port, aims to align the public port with the directives of the Law of Ports (Law 12,815/2013) and pave the way for the upcoming Development and Zoning Plan that will allow the lease of areas previously outside SPA’s jurisdiction.
The new port mapping is expected to bring legal certainty and predictability for lease agreements and encourage long-term investments in the port and its structures.
New features
Amongst the new features, there are accurate, georeferenced polygons that ensure that the public administration and the port community know exactly which areas are under SPA jurisdiction.
Other relevant changes introduced by the latest mapping include:
- Resolution of historical land conflicts between SPA, the federal government and municipalities
- Recognition of the Conceicãozinha community in the city of Guarujá (left bank) as an area of public interest for land and urban regularisation
- Respect for railroad tracks concessions granted by the Union to private enterprises
- Incorporation of strategic federal areas for port development
- Withdrawal of port jurisdiction from areas occupied by small port facilities in Guaruja
- Removal of land sections occupied by the DP World terminal from the organised port area
- Compatibility of private and public projects, by adapting the limits of the organised port to billionaire enterprises designed for the region
- Compatibility of waterways delimitation within the port jurisdiction to the structures for access, evolution, and anchoring of vessels
Apart from Santos, the Port of Santos includes the cities of Guaruja, Bertioga, Cubatao and Biritiba Mirim, all in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s wealthier and most industrialised state.
History
The Port of Santos, in southeastern Brazil, handles different cargo profiles, mostly containers, solid and liquid bulk. It was officially opened in 1892, and its geographical limits were last drawn up in 2002; however, the previous regulation did not indicate the georeferenced vertices that defined the boundaries and jurisdiction of the port, leading to recurring conflicts.
In 2019, the public port of Santos handled about 106.7 million metric tons of cargo with 3.3 million TEU (excluding DP World terminal), making it the busiest port for containers and agricultural products in South America.
SPA is undergoing significant changes in its organisational structure to prepare the state-owned dock company for privatisation in the coming years.
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