Anuário da Indústria de Implementos Rodoviários 2019

63 T he next four years will see added private investment in the transport infrastructure sector in Brazil, plans President Jair Bolsonaro, who took office in January 2019. Since the election campaign, his team has called for a reduction in government involvement as far as possible, and in the first few months of the mandate it has been indicating that this promise could be kept. The appointment of the Tarcisio Gomes de Freitas as Minister of Infrastructure is an important signal that the government will expand privatization and concessions in the infrastructure sector. Freitas played a decisive role in the creation of the Investment Partnership Program (PPI) during the Temer government, when he was project coordinator. In the first hundred days of the new government a package of privatization efforts has carried the PPI forwards. Tenders are planned for twelve airports, ten port terminals and the North-South Railroad. No highways are in this first wave, although eight are being privatized under the PPI, with tenders expected between the second quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020. The road projects under study foresee investments of R$ 47.4 billion during the thirty years of the concession period. The eight stretches now ready to be put out to tender are: BR-364/365, from Uberlândia (MG) to Jataí (GO), BR-364, from Porto Velho (RO) to Comodoro (MT), BR-101, from Paulo Lopes to São João do Sul (SC), BR- 153, from Aliança do Tocantins (TO) to Anápolis (GO), BR-153/282/470 / SC and SC-412, in Santa Catarina, and stretches already under private operation but whose concessions have ended or will do in the short term, such as BR-040, from Juiz de Fora (MG) to Rio de Janeiro, BR- 116, from São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro (Via Dutra), and BR- 116, from Duque de Caxias (RJ) to Além Paraíba (MG). In all, the federal government intends to secure R$ 100 billion in private investments in federal highways over the four years of its mandate, qualifying new stretches for the PPI. The amount was announced by the Infrastructure Minister to an audience of investors and businessmen during an event at Credit Suisse, held in São Paulo earlier this year. The processes of bidding for the BR-381 (MG), BR- 262 (ES), BR-163 (PA), BR-230 (PA), BR-476 (SC) and BR-280 (SC) are being structured. The sections could be announced later this year to start feasibility studies. Freitas says the government’s objective in the long- term is to change road freight transport by swapping long- distance freight for short-distance freight, with investment in high-capacity modes. He says that road transport “will always be powerful, will always be important and will always exist.” New profile and airports “The North-South Railroad, alone, is useless. It is a passage. What if cargo does not reach the North-South? Only road freight is door-to-door, so it is much more versatile than other systems,” said Freitas. “We will invest in other modes of transportation to change freight’s profile and we will replace these long- haul freight options. Long-distance freight is the most expensive, it is the one that causes most wear and it takes most maintenance and is unpredictable,” he added during an event at the National Confederation of Self-Employed Truck Driver, in February. The first major test of the privatization model planned by the government was the tender for the twelve airports included in the first package, divided into three blocks in the Northeast, Southeast and Midwest.They were sold for almost R$ 2.4 billion, ten times higher than the minimum bid.Concession contracts, however, require investments of R$ 3.5 billion over thirty years. “The tender showed that foreign investors are here to stay,” Freitas said. Of the three winning consortiums, two are foreign: Spain’s AENA Desarrollo Internacional SME SA, which got the Northeast, and Switzerland’s Zurich Airport Latin America, which got the airports in the Southeast. “Investors believe in Brazil, in the growth of our market. From the experience they have, they will do a great job and we will achieve the goal for public policy, which is to improve service delivery, “ added Freitas. The government has already issued a public call for proposals for the next round of airport concessions, which will include 22 terminals in the North, South, Northeast and Central-West regions. According to Freitas, this tender is expected to take place in the second half of 2020. The Brazilian government creates an ambitious package of privatization in the transport infrastructure sector for the next four years Private initiative’s time has come