Progress and prevarication in Pernambuco

The state of Pernambuco’s historic Port of Recife, hemmed in on all sides by a growing city with a population of more than four million, has just received a new Liebherr LHM mobile harbour crane (MHC) with a second one to arrive later this year. Santos-based box terminal operator Rodrimar is now working with the Recife port authority to bring in one or two regular calls.

Managers at Rodrimar expect the first containers to be unloaded in Recife under the new arrangement “sometime in August.” Liberato Carioni, the Rodrimar director responsible for port operations told CM: “We are just completing the assembly of our new MHC and marketing will now be full steam ahead to win some regular business for Recife. We believe that Suape is very congested these days and as the main consignees are in the Recife conurbation, clients will save significantly on trucking costs by using us.”

Carioni said that many shippers were interested in Recife and he was not fussed whether he won “deep-sea or cabotage” services from Suape. He added that as part of the PAC infrastructure investment programme, Recife was dredging down from today’s 10 m draught to “between 11.5 m and 12 m”, and this would allow for deepsea services to call at the port.