Posted on June 17, 2026
Brazil’s Ministry of Ports and Airports submitted the revised concession project for the access channel to the Port of Itajaí, Santa Catarina, to Brazil’s Waterway Transportation Agency (ANTAQ) on Thursday. The move marks the final stage before the publication of bidding documents and the auction itself.
Ports and Airports Minister Tomé Franca told Valor that the government expects to hold the auction in the second half of this year, possibly between August and September.
The project envisions nearly R$350 million in investments throughout the 25-year concession period, with the possibility of extending the contract for up to 70 years.
The concession will be the second of its kind undertaken by the federal government. The process began with the concession of the access channel to the Port of Paranaguá, which was auctioned last year and had its contract signed in March.
The model is part of the government’s strategy to bring greater predictability to dredging management—the removal of sediment and restoration of channel depth—thereby improving the efficiency of port operations.
“It ensures operational safety, legal certainty, and that dredging of the port channel is always maintained at the level required for operations. This allows the port to fully perform its role. A port is not only the infrastructure where berths and cargo handling take place, but also its access routes. Without access, a port loses its purpose,” the minister told Valor.
According to Franca, guaranteeing investors that dredging and operating conditions will be maintained on a regular basis removes a risk that would otherwise be factored into project costs.
“If there is no risk that dredging will not be carried out, or that it will not be performed properly, investors remove that risk from their calculations—or at least reduce it significantly—because they have legal and operational certainty that access to the port will be properly maintained. That encourages investment in the port,” he said.
Maintaining channel depths is considered essential for safe navigation and for accommodating increasingly larger vessels. In April, maintenance dredging operations in the port channel resumed following the signing of a contract that guarantees continuity of the service for the next 12 months.
The documents were submitted to the regulator after revisions to the studies required by determinations and recommendations issued by TCU, Brazil’s public spending watchdog, which approved the concession in May.
The project includes investments in two phases, encompassing dredging and deepening works to enable operations by next-generation vessels up to 400 meters in length.
The two investment phases are expected to directly enhance the infrastructure needed to progressively expand the port’s capacity and accommodate larger ships. The measures are considered essential to keep pace with the global evolution of container vessel fleets and ensure that the port complex can meet projected long-term demand.
The project also calls for the removal of the wreck of the Pallas vessel, which remains submerged in the area. The measure is viewed as strategic for improving navigational safety and expanding the operational capacity of the port complex, allowing it to receive larger vessels. The final destination of any recovered materials will be determined at a later stage, based on technical, environmental, and historical preservation criteria.
The government also views progress on the channel concession as another step toward improving the port’s efficiency, particularly given the recent history of administrative instability at the facility, which is currently managed by the Bahia State Port Authority (Codeba).
In 2024, the federal government began the process of resuming control of the Port of Itajaí. Port operations had been halted in 2022, when the federal administration at the time was pursuing privatization. In December 2023, under the current government, a temporary operating contract for the terminal was signed.
In addition to the access channel concession, the government is discussing the final structure for the concession auction of the Port of Itajaí itself, a project currently under review by the TCU.
