Largest dry port in Latin America will have R$500 million in investment

The largest dry port customs unit in Latin America begins construction next month in the city of Foz do Iguaçu (PR), on the triple border with Paraguay and Argentina. The first stage is expected to be delivered at the end of 2025.

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According to the president of the integrated logistics operator Multilog, Djalma Vilela, this stage of the structure will be completed simultaneously with the Perimetral Leste work, which provides access to the second bridge between Brazil and Paraguay. The Integration Bridge has been ready since December 2022, built with resources from Itaipu Binacional during the administration of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), but remains inoperative because it depends on the support structure such as the perimeter to assist in the removal of trucks from the central region of Foz of Iguaçu and direct them to the new crossing.

The new dry port will involve investments of R$500 million and will operate to replace the structure located in the urban perimeter of the city, opened in the 1980s and which receives in a strangulated way close to 200 thousand trucks per year, around 550 vehicles. per day. The new unit will have the capacity to receive a thousand trucks per day, reaching 365 thousand vehicles per year.

Last week, a ceremony in Foz do Iguaçu marked the launch of the work scheduled to begin next month. The new dry port structure will be located on the banks of the BR-277far from the urbanized region and, according to Vilela, will boost cargo movements in the triple border region, facilitating foreign trade and generating more than 3 thousand direct and indirect jobs.

“We are leaving the city center in an outdated area and going to a place three times bigger. We work in a scenario of growth in movement for the next 10, 15 years. The new dry port is also moving in this direction. We are currently awaiting the latest license approvals, normal for the period, to begin earthmoving”, he considered. Multilog has been the company responsible for managing the current port since 2016, having won the Federal Revenue tender in 2023 to manage the new space.

For the governor of Paraná, Carlos Massa Ratinho Junior (PSD), the new port is essential to consolidate the state as a logistics hub in South America. “We need this new dry port because what exists no longer supports advancement, development, movement. In this way, we continue on the path to consolidating ourselves as the largest logistics hub in South America”, he reinforced.

According to the Federal Revenue, the existing dry port handled US$ 6.5 billion in 2022, having reached US$ 6.7 billion in 2023 – close to R$ 33.5 billion – with US$ 3.9 billion in exports and US$2.7 billion in imports.

Work on the Foz do Iguaçu dry port was designed in two stages

The new dry port of Foz do Iguaçu will be built in two phases. In the first of them, the terminal will have a 197 thousand square meter yard for trucks. In this phase, expected to be delivered by the end of 2025, R$240 million will be invested.

The unit will have an area of ​​1,900 square meters designated for drivers to rest and stay, in addition to 7,200 square meters of closed covered area for storage and inspection, including more than 600 square meters of cold room, with three exclusive docks for storing products that require controlled temperatures.

In the second stage, when R$260 million will be allocated, the area will be doubled. This process must occur within 10 to 15 years after the start of operation.

For customs broker Mario Camargo, vice-president of foreign trade at the Commercial and Industrial Association of Foz do Iguaçu (Acif), the structure is essential to the regional economy and trade with other countries at the busiest border in the country. Between Brazil and Paraguay, 40 thousand vehicles travel daily, including a thousand trucks.

“We have an obsolete port, from the 1980s. Our trade with Argentina and Paraguay was timid at the time. Today it is strong and has prospects for growing a lot, especially with Paraguay, which has increased its grain production and its maquiladora industry. The new structure allows us to increase this movement efficiently”, said Camargo.

If structural advancement is crucial for development, what worries is the lack of professionals linked to public sectors, without which there are difficulties in customs clearance.

According to Camargo, eight new inspectors would be needed from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (Mapa) alone, a condition that has been criticized for years and which hinders, for example, the import of corn from Paraguay to Brazil, considered essential for the industry of food.

“This is a big challenge: personnel to operate, not so much for the Federal Revenue Service, but mainly for Mapa. Although many processes are digitalized, without the need for an inspector it is not possible to speed up the processes”, he assessed.

Mayor bets on new dynamics in the triple border economy

The mayor of Foz do Iguaçu, Brazilian Chico (PSD), is betting that the new dry port will provide a different dynamic to the development of the triple border and foreign trade, with collateral benefits for tourism. “This work is essential for the economic development of Foz do Iguaçu and the region and will affect urban mobility, because the central region of the city suffers from the freight transport corridor. From the new port onwards, the municipality’s investment will be planned so that the central region becomes a tourist corridor and no longer for trucks”, he explained.

Part of the route used by heavy vehicles is the same that leads to tourist destinations such as Iguaçu Falls and Marco das Três Fronteiras. According to the mayor of Foz do Iguaçu, the new structure of the Municipal Palace will be built on the land that houses the current dry port. “We will give a new dynamic and function to that region of the city. These are gains on many fronts,” he assessed.

The substitute regional superintendent of the Federal Revenue Service in the 9th fiscal region (Paraná and Santa Catarina), Marcos Vinicius Pereira Lacerda, spoke on behalf of the agency’s regional superintendent, Fabio Eduardo Boschi, who is licensed. In a text sent to the event, Boschi considered that the project will improve commercial relations between the three countries, streamlining the flow of international trade, in what he called “Mercosur’s gateway and access to Brazilian territory”.

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