‎Brazil News

Another Infra Week auction day, a week dedicated to airport, port and railroad concessions on the B3 Stock Exchange. After the concessions of 22 airports, last Wednesday (7), the first stretch of the West East Integration Railway (FIOL) was auctioned on Thursday (8). The winner of the event was the company Bamin (Bahia Mineração), which will be responsible, for 35 years, for the 537 km stretch that connects the cities of Ilhéus and Caetité, in Bahia.

 

“An investment that will, first, allow the completion of an unfinished work 10 years ago. We will finally see the FIOL work taking shape, finishing, arriving at the port. This concession addresses the issue of Porto Sul; and we will have an integrated system: mine, railroad, port ”, emphasized the Minister of Infrastructure, Tarcísio de Freitas.

 

The FIOL concession will unlock the project and guarantee R $ 3.3 billion in investments, of which R $ 1.6 billion will be used to conclude the works on the stretch, which are 80% complete. It will also allow the creation of 55 thousand direct and indirect jobs. The grant amount to FIOL offered by Bahia Mineração was R $ 37.730 million.

 

The expectation is that section 1 of the FIOL, auctioned by the Ministry of Infrastructure, through the National Land Transport Agency (ANTT), will start operating in 2025, transporting more than 18 million tons of cargo, between grains and, mainly, iron ore produced in the Caetité region. Volume that is expected to double in 2035, exceeding 50 million tons of cargo and expanding the railway participation in the transport matrix of Brazil.

 

FIOL 1

The route of FIOL 1 will cross the cities of Bahia: Ilhéus, Uruçuca, Aureliano Leal, Ubaitaba, Gongogi, Itagibá, Itagi, Jequié, Manoel Vitorino, Mirante, Tanhaçu, Aracatu, Brumado, Livramento de Nossa Senhora, Lagoa Real, Rio do Antônio, Ibiassucê and Caetité.

 

According to the superintendent of B3 Bidding Processes, Guilherme Peixoto, this is an important corridor for the disposal of iron ore in the southwest of Bahia through the port of Ilhéus. “The concession of this stretch shows that the private sector can operate and manage with quality a service that will bring benefits to the economy and boost the productivity of strategic sectors in Brazil, such as agribusiness, for example.”

 

Other excerpts from FIOL

According to the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Federal Government is also working on projects for the concession of the other two sections of the West East Integration Railway: FIOL 2, between Caetité (BA) and Barreiras (BA), with works in progress, and FIOL 3 , from Barreiras (BA) to Figueirópolis (TO), which is awaiting an installation license from the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama). It will be a flow corridor that will have a total of 1,527 kilometers of tracks, connecting the port of Ilhéus to the municipality of Figueirópolis, where FIOL will connect with the North-South Railway and the rest of the country.

 

Infra Week

A total of 28 Federal Government assets will be transferred to the private sector during Infra Week, which started last Wednesday (7). The contracts are expected to yield about R $ 10 billion in investments in the coming years.

 

The first auction, last Wednesday (7), granted the management of the private initiative 22 airports, with a forecast of R $ 6.1 billion in investments. Terminals were auctioned in three blocks. The North Block, with the participation of airports such as Manaus (AM), Boa Vista (RR) and Tabatinga (AM); Central, which has terminals in Teresina (PI) and Petrolina (PE); and the Southern Block, which covers airports such as Curitiba (PR) and Londrina (PR).

 

“Infra Week is already a success. Yesterday, there were 22 airports. In other words, in a single day, we made the same number of airports as we had in our entire airport history. And today, the West East Integration Railway ”, celebrated the Minister of Infrastructure, Tarcísio Freitas.

 

Next Friday (9), five port terminals will be auctioned, four in the ports of Itaqui (MA) and the other in Pelotas (RS). There will be R $ 600 thousand of investments contracted in the sector.