The public notice for projects qualified during the fifth meeting of the Council of the Investment Partnership Program (CPPI), held on March 25, is expected to be published by next quarter, and the auction is expected to be held later this year for contracts for the beginning of 2019.

In all, there are three liquid bulk terminals in the port of Cabedelo-PB (AE-10, AE-11, and AI-01); two liquid bulk terminals in the port of Santos-SP (STS-13 and STS 13-A); and two terminals in the port of Suape-PE, one intended for the handling of containers (SUA-05) and the other for vehicles (SUA-XX).

In order to comply with the schedule provided, it will be necessary to conduct a public hearing and submit the projects for the review of the Auditing Court (TCU), which, in evaluating other similar projects, such as the port terminals for movement of vehicles in the port of Paranaguá (PAR 12) and general cargo, primarily paper and pulp, in the ports of Itaqui (IQI 18) and Paranaguá (PAR01), it did not stop any public procurement procedure, having limited itself to providing recommendations to federal entities.

Although the project schedule is very similar, the model for the STS-13 liquid bulk terminal, located in the port of Santos-SP, aside from having already been submitted for a public hearing, has already been approved by the TCU. The next step is the publication of the public notice, which is expected to occur in the second quarter. The model of the container terminal SUA-05, to be installed in the Port of Suape-PE, is still in the study phase, although the public notice is expected to be published in the third quarter.

During the public hearing phase, the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) is a relevant subject that can be commented on. In the case of other terminals, the rate was changed before the public notice was published.

The studies on the characteristics of the projects are being conducted by Empresa de Planejamento e Logística S.A. (EPL). Most of the terminals correspond to brownfield investments, but a greenfield project is also part of this investment package, in this case the SUA-05 container terminal, which will be installed in the port of Suape-PE.

According to the information provided by the CPPI, it is estimated that the total investment is in the order of R$ 1.2 billion, of which R$ 46.34 million is for the terminals located in the port of Cabedelo-PB; R$ 912.5 million for the terminals located in the port of Suape-PE; and R$ 309 million for the terminals located in the port of Santos-SP. The term of validity of the contracts varies between 25 and 30 years, depending on the case.

Following the model of the previous calls for bids, EPL will continue to apply the judging criteria of greater grant value, which tends to exclude adventurous bidders who do not have the economic and financial health to perform long-term contracts.

Considering that the projects can be modified after the public hearing phase, it will only be possible to conduct a more detailed analysis of their characteristics with the publication of the public notice.