Inaugurated about two months ago in the middle of a pandemic, the Raízen terminal in the port of Itaqui, in São Luís, has already started receiving ships with fuels, in a project that should expand the import of diesel from the country and the distribution of products to the North and the Northeast, company executives told Reuters on Thursday. With an investment of R$ 200 million, the new terminal with the capacity to handle 1.5 billion liters of fuel per year, which can store up to 80 million liters, is connected to railways, which ensures that Raízen will also be able to transport ethanol and biodiesel from the Midwest with lower costs. For the director of Business Development and Infrastructure at Raízen, Nilton Gabardo, the fuel market is a “cost reduction race”, which is at the heart of the terminal project. Raízen, which is among the three largest fuel distributors in Brazil, in a market led by BR, expects to supply the States of Maranhão, Piauí, Pará, Tocantins and Mato Grosso with the Itaqui unit, in addition to functioning as a hub cargo to other ports in the States of the North and Northeast Regions, which may be served by smaller ships. Gabardo pointed out that the new São Luís terminal is part of a network of new railway bases, recently built by Raízen in Porto Nacional (TO) and Marabá (PA), in addition to the existing railway bases in Teresina (PI) and Açailândia (MA)). According to the company, this group of terminals and distribution bases were designed to be the company’s most efficient assets in the long run, operating large railway trains connected by the railway network of the Centro-Atlântica Railway, in addition to the North-South Railway.
Source: Money Times