SPA Santos Port Authority, the state-owned company that manages the Port of Santos, ended the first quarter with a net profit of R$ 70.8 million, up 93% compared to the same period in 2020. The significant improvement in the result was driven by the combination of increased revenues and cuts in costs and expenses, with a focus on efficiency, austerity and rationalization of resources. The companyt has undertaken this strategy since it took over management in 2019. The five terminals that registered the highest number of vessel calls in the first quarter of 2021 were BTP, Santos Brasil, DP World Santos, Tiplam and Alamoa. The first three receive many container vessel calls, while the last two do not. The terminal that saw the greatest growth in the number of calls was DP World Santos, which grew substantially over the past three years. This effort allowed SPA to close the quarter with a cash position of almost R$ 940 million, an increase of 45.9% in relation to the first quarter of 2020. As a result, SPA will propose to Brazil’s Ministry of Infrastructure (Minfra), within which it sits, the cancellation of all federal government “pending liabilities” related to investments currently in progress.
Sources: SPA Santos Port Authority/Datamar News