Brazil's Ceará state prepares Pecém port expansion

Brazil's Ceará state port administrator, Cearáportos, has kicked off studies for phase three expansion plans at Pecém port in the city of São Gonçalo do Amarante.

The project will include a new breakwater and a berth area to handle solid bulk, and is budgeted at 1.6bn reais (US$424mn), local paper Valor Econômico reported.

The new infrastructure will help absorb the expected increase in demand to come from the Transnordestina railroad, one of the main logistics arms of the port.

"Currently, we are completing phase two expansion at the port and by March 2016 three new berths will be opened, adding to the existing six," Cearáportos president Danilo Serpa was quoted as saying by Valor.

Phase two, which is budgeted at approximately 640mn reais, is expected to increase the port's cargo handling capacity fivefold. Since 2002, a total of 2.5bn reais has been invested in the port.

The port is also in proximity to the Companhia Siderúrgica do Pecém (CSP) mining project, a JV between Vale and Korean companies Dongkuk and Posco, considered the largest private sector investment ever for the state and scheduled to kick-off operations in 1H16.