Posted on June 2, 2025
The Brazilian government announced a plan to invest 844mn reais (about US$150mn) in the port of Itajaí, in Santa Catarina state.
The largest amount will be for the construction of a pier for cruise ships requiring 300mn reais, followed by the dredging of the Itajaí-Açu river at 90mn reais. Other works include the reconfiguration of the Navegantes pier and canal bank containment, the ports and airports ministry said in a statement.
Itajaí port is currently under a transitional administration, as the federal government plans to structure concessions to attract private investors.
The port is operated under the supervision of state-owned Santos Port Authority (SPA), which also manages Brazil’s largest port in Santos, São Paulo state.
Now the federal government will authorize the creation of a dedicated port authority to operate Itajaí.
“This is one of the most important moments for the Brazilian port sector. The relaunch of the port of Itajaí is one of our top priorities. We will submit a provisional measure to transform the port into an independent port authority and a federal port,” said ports and airports minister Silvio Costa Filho.
The government is planning to structure two concession contracts at the port. One is to operate the access channel and the other is for the container and general cargo terminal.
The access channel concession is expected to be offered in December via an auction. The 25-year contract includes maintenance and deepening of the channel and involves total investment of 317mn reais, according to the ministry.
As part of the government’s plan to boost port operations, Itajaí is also expected to be used for the construction of vessels for state oil and gas company Petrobras.
Petrobras CEO Magda Chambriard announced the construction of 16 PSV-type vessels for cargo transport and OSV-type ones for incident mitigation with investment of 7bn reais, to be built at the ports of Itajaí and Navegantes.
Itajaí is the second-largest port in the country.
Earlier in the week, the ship BYD Shenzhen docked at the port, bringing over 7,000 vehicles produced by the Chinese automaker. The operation was considered the largest vehicle shipment in Brazil’s history on a single vessel.
