Prumo Logistica, the investment group behind Brazil’s Porto do Açu, is looking to spend 300 million reais ($62 million) to expand the port’s footprint in the agriculture sector with facilities that export grain and import fertilizer, according to Bloomberg. Prumo Logistica is seeking to combine grain exports with fertilizers imports, which would reduce freight costs to customers.
The port is heavily involved in oil and iron ore exports and is preparing to become a hub for offshore wind and green hydrogen and ammonia (GM March 19, 2021). The port earlier this summer signed a partnership with Japanese-Brazilian company Toyo Setal to jointly develop a nitrogen fertilizer plant at the port site in São João da Barra, in northern Rio de Janeira (GM July 14, p. 1).
The new funding would go to build a terminal that would have an annual capacity of 3 million mt/y of grain. The move is a bid to capture the market for crops transported by road, according to Rogerio Zampronha, CEO of Prumo Logistica, the holding company that owns Açu and is a joint venture between private equity firm EIG Global Energy Partners and Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Co.
Brazil has recently overtaken the US as the world’s largest corn and soybean exporter. Additional investments in the nation’s port terminals are considered key to avoiding congestion like the one seen this year as the country produced record volumes of corn, soybeans, and sugar.
Porto do Açu started operations in 2014 and was designed by former billionaire Eike Batista. Grain shipments through Porto do Açu made some initial gains in 2023, moving grain and oilseed cargoes of about 150,000 mt for clients such as Russian trading firm Sodrugestvo Group. Zampronha also cited the potential expansion of a railroad to Porto do Açu, which would increase annual grain volumes to about 16 million mt in the future.
A final investment decision is expected during the first half of 2024, Zampronha said, and it will take an additional 18 months after that to get the new terminal up and running.