Interviews with Port of Houston and with Port of Santos
John Moseley, Chief Commercial Officer,
Port of Houston
How have container volumes between Houston and Latin America evolved this year?
Port Houston receives 18% of its container volumes from Latin America, which amounted to 270,371 TEUs through the first half of this year. Latin America’s volumes have increased by 3% this year, surpassing the record volumes seen in 2022. Over the past five years, containerized trade between Port Houston and Latin America has grown by 33%.
As the President of BRATECC (Brazil-Texas Chamber of Commerce), could you explain to our audience the synergies between these two locations, especially in terms of the energy transition?
Brazil is our largest trading partner in Latin America for containers, #5 overall. Both regions share commonalities, such as focusing on energy transition and solid agricultural economies. Brazil has one of the world’s least carbon-intensive energy sectors, with almost 45% of its primary energy demand met by renewable sources. Port Houston is also committed to sustainability and aims to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 through technology upgrades, infrastructure improvements, and clean energy sources. The Port has already reduced emissions by more than 50% since 2016 and switched to 100% renewable electricity in 2020.
What growth opportunities do you identify for the future?
We have more than a dozen weekly services connecting Latin America and Houston with short transit times. Imports have been a growing opportunity as products can be efficiently and cost-effectively distributed nationwide. We’re also well-suited as an export gateway to Latin America. Ample land, energy access, and a strong workforce make Houston, Texas, a great place to manufacture and consolidate freight destined for Latin America.
I hope our fellow APLA members will consider Houston their first gateway to North America. Port Houston’s vision is to be America’s Distribution Hub for the Next Generation. Based on our performance over the last twenty years and with the support of our customers, we are well on our way to making our vision a reality.
Anderson Pomini, CEO,
Port of Santos
What are the main infrastructure developments planned at the Port?
Our access channel has a current draft of 15 m, in line with international trade necessities, but we plan to deepen the channel to a 16 m draft, expandable to 17 m in the future. This should allow the reception of ships up to 366 m in length, the largest freighters that are calling South America. We also plan to invest in access roads. But on future projects, the first to be mentioned is a long-requested tunnel to connect both margins of the port, minimizing time, environmental impact and cost to go from one side to the other. Next, we will start the construction of a viaduct together with FIPS (Ferrovia Interna do Porto de Santos) for better access to the Alemoa region. However, these investments would be incomplete without action towards the current highway connecting Santos and the Plateau. The Anchieta highway is the only road available for trucks, transporting 164 million t/y. We urgently need the State to intervene with a second Santos-Plateau highway to connect the Port with the interior of Brazil. Two projects are being discussed in this sense: Either the construction of another lane along Imigrantes, a work for which there already is environmental licencing; or a more sophisticated but impactful project, that of a new road-and-railway complex that would take about 8 years to complete.
What projects are you rolling out under the mission to integrate Port-City operations?
Port of Santos is in the middle of two cities and 1.6 million people. Now, together with Santos City Hall, we developed a project to build a pier with restaurants and shops, similar to what one may see in Singapore or Rio de Janeiro. This will integrate tourists coming by land and sea, helping promote the image and understanding of the port.
What growth opportunities do you identify for Port of Santos moving forward?
Port of Santos has been growing every year. Last year, we handled 164 million tons (MT) of product, and we forecast to surpass that in 2023. Our growth curve to 2035 is accelerated, driven especially by higher grain export volumes, but to facilitate this growth, we must boost our container handling capacity from the current 5 million containers/day to around 7.5-8 million once we open the tunnel and free up the area on the left bank.