March 22, 2013 [SeeNews] - Brazilian Cattalini Terminais Maritimos, specialising in vegetable oil and liquid grain derivative cargoes, decided not to rent the liquids terminal at the Santos port, in southeastern Sao Paulo state, after nine months of unsuccessful attempts to sign the lease contract.
The company was declared winner of the bidding in May 2012 placing an BRL-80.7-million (USD 40.5m/EUR 31.4m) offer for the terminal’s lease. Since then, however, Cattalini has been impeded to sign the contract — first because of appeals by the defeated bidders in the auction, for which Cattalini got a favourable ruling, and recently because of new administrative appeals.
Thus, as the commitment assumed with the Santos’ terminal has been obstructing Cattalini to take advantage of other business opportunities and is therefore harmful to the company’s expansion plan, Cattalini has given up the terminal, the company explains in a note.
The second highest bid for the liquids terminal, of BRL 78 million, was of sector player Ultracargo Operacoes Logisticas, while the third offer of BRL 39.8 million was of VPK, linked to the terminal’s previous concessionaire Vopak.
Cattalini is specialised in liquids traffic at Paranagua port, in southern Parana state and this was its first attempt to expand operations outside this state. At Paranagua, Cattalini’s handling capacity stands at 400,000 cu m (1.412m cu ft) of cargoes.
