Brazilian Ports Research Articles

Análise da eficiência na geração de resíduos sólidos nos terminais de carga geral brasileiro utilizando DEA

Based on the National Solid Waste Policy, the Brazilian port sector was forced to manage the waste generated in ports and port terminals. From the inventory of waste, it was possible to analyze the efficiency in the generation of waste in port terminals that predominantly handle the general cargo, using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. The output-oriented DEA BCC model was adopted. In addition, this work used three analyzes, one general and two peer-to-peer. The result of the general analysis, in which the three variables were considered, presented eight efficient terminals, having one false-efficient terminal. The DMU 18 was the most efficient because it obtained the highest value in the Normalized Compound. In the peer-to-peer analysis, the efficient border was formed by only two DMU's, where the presence of DMU 21 is observed in the three analyzes. Moreover, in one of the peer-to-peer analyzes it was observed that the model attributed the highest value in the Normalized Compound to the DMU 20 that was not efficient. In this case, the composite and normalized composite indicators were disregarded from the analysis, using standard and inverted efficiency indicators. This article includes the identification of the terminals with the best and worst management practices.

Cargo allocation in Brazilian ports: An analysis through fuzzy logic and social networks

Empirical and anecdotal evidence suggests Brazilian ports are running short in operational capacity for cargo handling and shipping movements. This paper focuses on the joint use of Fuzzy Logic (FL) reasoning and Social Network Analysis (SNA) to assess the cargo allocation pattern in Brazilian ports while shedding some light on policy-making directions and future research venues. Results suggest that cargo allocation patterns vary depending on the cargo type and product type. One can also infer that shippers prioritize distance in relation to other port allocation criteria. In the case of containerized cargo, this may be due to its higher value added compared to bulk cargo. Sensitivity analyses are also performed on the weights of port allocation criteria to explore opportunities for cargo relocation among ports in Brazil.

On measuring the efficiency of Brazilian ports and their management models

Brazil is currently encumbered with various logistical inefficiencies, some of which related to the port logistics chain, affecting the competitiveness of the country’s exporters and importers. Given this context, it is important to assess the efficiency of ports as strategic links in this chain. The article evaluates and compares the efficiency of the main Brazilian ports using data envelopment analysis. The inputs used are cargo capacity, quay length and maximum draft. Outputs considered are cargo throughput and the number of shipping calls. Owing to the diversity of the Brazilian port system, the main goal of this article, in addition to identifying the most efficient port, is an attempt to assess whether the nature of cargo handled, or the management model adopted, affect significantly efficiency. Outcomes indicate that the port of Paranagua is the most efficient port of Brazil and could therefore be considered as a benchmark. Our analysis did not find significant efficiency differences based on different management models or nature of cargo handled.

20 years of port reform in Brazil: Insights into the reform process

The Brazilian port reform took place in the context of the Brazilian state reform of the 1990s. This process, as expected, was permeated by conflicts, contradictions, and lengthy negotiations. Our goal is to assess the Brazilian port governance changes in the 1993–2013 period, and to identify the main issues related to its implementation, as diverse strategies were adopted. Considering Brazil's foreign trade profile and its role in the international market, the paper covers the period from 1993 to 2013, marked by the publication of two port reform laws, Law 8630 from February 1993 and Law 12815 from June 2013. The methodology is based on critical analysis of the legislation contents, as well as documents of the Special Committees of the National Congress, specialised reports, and reports by the media and interviews with experts. Our findings have identified advances and setbacks in the Brazilian governance model. The results point to a long and controversial process in the 1990s, mainly undertaken by businesses and workers, and, in 2013, by port operators in public ports and private terminals and by potential newcomers.

Interwoven

This article explores the linkages between the slave trades to Spanish and Portuguese America during the Iberian Union (1580–1640). Drawing upon legal suits, it argues that Brazilian port cities were both destinations and hubs for the re-exportation of West Central African captives to Spanish colonies. Vessels frequently “stopped over” in Brazilian ports following the Atlantic crossing due to navigational exigencies and to avoid paying the higher duties on captives levied in Spanish American ports. This article demonstrates that the integration of the slave trades to Spanish and Portuguese America facilitated the spread of slavery well beyond sugar-producing regions.

Planning the berth allocation problem in developing countries with multiple cargos and cargo priority by a mathematical model and a clustering search metaheuristic

Some Brazilian ports operate several different cargos. These ports were privatised, and to avoid the private companies to restrict their operations to some few profitable cargos, the Brazilian Government established rules, called cargo priorities, to ensure that all cargos are handled at the ports. These rules have a direct impact on port operations, especially when it comes to defining the allocation of berth space for vessels. Thus, this paper presents a mathematical model and a clustering search (CS) metaheuristic for the berth allocation problem with multiple cargos and cargo priorities, considering time and space constraints. The paper is motivated by a port terminal located in Brazil, which handles containers, granites and cars. CS solved both instances based on real data and instances created to test large problems. An extensive analysis of all the results is also presented.

Strategic planning processes of port systems: A comparative analysis of Brazil and Spain

According to the World Economic Forum (Global Competitiveness Report 2015-2016), the logistics infrastructure in Brazil lags behind developed countries despite its powerful economy. The quality of the transport infrastructure is ranked 77th globally; ranking 121th in road infrastructure; 98th in railway infrastructure; 95th for air transport and 120th for quality of port infrastructure. These positions need to be improved if Brazil wants to remain one of the largest economies in the world for the coming decades. On the other hand, in terms of port infrastructure, Spain occupies 12th position. There are other issues and attributes that could be used to compare both port systems (such as the skills of dockworkers, the institutional framework of the country or the macroeconomic aspects, among others).
 Our goal in this paper was to perform a comparative analysis of the strategic planning processes used in the port systems of both Brazil and Spain. The results show that these two countries utilise similar planning systems. Nevertheless, and perhaps due to the recent institutional changes in Brazil, the Brazilian port system has a lot of room for improvement, when compared to the Spanish system. Better alignment between national and local strategy, the transformation of the port authorities that still have not become autonomous companies, or the focus on the implementation of the strategy (using plans updated yearly, aligned with the Strategic Plan) are three actions that we can suggest to those responsible for the formulation of public policies and directives of the Brazilian Port Authorities.

First Voice Analysis and New Records of the Mysterious Speckled Rail (Coturnicops notatus)

ABSTRACT The Speckled Rail (Coturnicops notatus) is one of the least known Neotropical birds. Despite the ongoing debate if its rarity is genuine or related to detection problems, its conservation status has been recurrently assessed as “least-concern.” Absence of voice recordings and thorough voice descriptions are the major limitations in determining its distribution and population size, which may bias the assessment of its conservation status. We present the first voice analyses of this species and two new records for southeastern South America based on individuals received by a wildlife rehabilitation center in southern Brazil. The first individual was found aboard a ship traveling from Uruguay to the Brazilian port of Rio Grande in October 2007, and the second was found in the Brazilian city of Pelotas in August 2015. At least three different types of voices of the latter individual were recorded and analyzed, all of which differ in pitch, timbre, and structure from the voices of other South American...

English

Soybean is one of the most important cultures harvested in the world, and Brazil is ranked the second major producer and the top exporter of this oilseed. Brazil presents good edaphoclimatic conditions for soybean cropping, it has a strong research structure and has capacity to enhance its cropping area, and however, the faulty infrastructure in its own terrain hinders logistic operations for soybean flow and exportation. Brazil has a huge deficit in grain storing, forcing producers to flow their production right after harvesting. Brazilian transportation is centered on a road system, and it is not viable once road conditions are precarious and also there are long distances to run. Soybean should then be transported by water or railway, but these means of transportation are not enough in the country due to low exploitation of existing waterways and the short railway system. Besides, Brazilian ports are inefficient, when the soybean harvest flow is at its peak for exportation; there are long lines of trucks and ships. This series of internal barriers increase the costs of Brazilian soybean and reduces its competition in the foreign market. Thus, it is of pivotal importance that the Brazilian government performs investments in building warehouses. It is also vital to invest in the improvement of the road network, extend railways and waterways and enhance ports, so that the costs with soybean logistics drop and producers should be able to increase their profits and competitiveness in the overseas market. Key words: Glycine max L., transport, packaging

Zona Livre de Arbitragem: Brasil para o Primeiro Mundo

No século XXI, o conhecimento é o fator de produção determinante para o crescimento econômico, sendo ele originário das Universidades e dos Centros de Pesquisa. Este estoque de conhecimento, utilizado pelo empreendedor criativo e por investidores de longo prazo com elevadas poupanças, são os transformadores do conhecimento em inovação. Sendo o Brasil um país de poupança irrisória, nossa capacidade de gerar inovação é quase nula. Para mudar do ciclo de economia subdesenvolvida para desenvolvida é necessário atrair a poupança internacional intensiva e de longo prazo. Mas esta poupança só transformará em investimentos diretos em nosso país se tiverem a garantia da “segurança jurídica”. A realidade brasileira é de uma grande lacuna de segurança jurídica do Estado, por falta de Instituições maduras e por falta de uma reforma jurídica, para modernizar esta ação. Nossa sugestão neste artigo e uma institucionalização de uma “Zona Livre de Arbitragem”, que seria implantada como modelo na Região Metropolitana da Baixada Santista. Indicamos esta região pelo potencial econômico de ser a região onde se localiza o maior porto do Brasil e pelo espaço territorial para transformar as matéria primas em bens de maior valor agregado pela inovação.

Berth allocation in an ore terminal with demurrage, despatch and maintenance

This paper presents a Berth Allocation Problem (BAP) encountered in an ore terminal located in a Brazilian port. The BAP consists of assigning ships to berthing positions along a quay in a port. In the Brazilian port considered here, maintenance activities have to be performed at the berths and extra fees (demurrage) or rewards (despatch) for the port administrator are incurred. We propose a mixed integer linear programming model for the problem and a set of instances based on real data in order to validate the model. An adaptive large neighborhood search (ALNS) heuristic is applied to solve the instances and computational experiments are performed. The results indicate that the ALNS heuristic yields good solutions on all instances.

Evidenciação das práticas de planejamento, execução e controle do orçamento: Um levantamento nos portos públicos do Brasil

Budgeting is one of the oldest planning and control systems adopted by the companies, and continues to receive significant attention. Despite being widely used in the business world, budgeting is also oftentimes the target of criticism. Therefore, this work aims at demonstrating budgeting practices in port companies in Brazil. The work presents a quantitative and qualitative approach, with a descriptive and exploratory objective, and the use of a survey. The research was conducted by sending the survey to Brazilian public ports. The results show that the Brazilian ports use only a few budgeting practices. Among the main features identified in the study there are the lack of alignment between the budgeting and strategic planning and of the internal evaluation of the results and the partial application of control mechanisms. These characteristics show that Brazilian public ports have opportunities for improvement in different budgeting practices.

The “Orient” in the “New World”: The Carreira da Índia and the Flows between Asia and Portuguese America

The history of Brazil in its colonial period is characterized by the movement of Asian people, goods, and merchandise radiating from Brazilian ports that received ships via the Carreira da Índia, the main sea route integrating the Portuguese Empire both commercially and politically. Asian memory and imagination were present in the urban centres of the Portuguese American colonies in the form of cultural material before the actual presence of Asians, which began to occur through cycles of immigration into Brazilian lands during the nineteenth century. This article traces the circulation of ivory carvings from Asia into Portuguese America as a way of illustrating the presence of Asian material cultures in the New World, as well as the relevance of the Carreira da Índia to these cultural connections.

New evidence on the determinants of efficiency at Brazilian ports: a bootstrapped DEA analysis

This paper reports on the use of different approaches for measuring efficiency in 27 major Brazilian ports from 2007 to 2011. Several DEA estimates were generated using the bootstrapping technique presented in Simar and Wilson (1998, 2004), thus allowing bias correction to test for significant differences in efficiency levels and their major determinants. Results not only corroborate previous evidence regarding capacity shortfalls within Brazilian ports, but also suggest a positive impact for: a) connectivity infrastructure on scale efficiency levels; b) private administration on managerial efficiency levels; c) higher technical efficiency levels on handling costs and queuing times.

Workload and associated factors: a study in maritime port in Brazil.

ABSTRACTObjective:to identify the effect of the mental, physical, temporal, performance, total effort and frustration demands in the overall workload, and in the same way analyze the global burden of port labor and associated factors that contribute most to their decrease or increase. Method:a cross-sectional, quantitative study, developed with 232 dock workers. For data collection, a structured questionnaire with descriptive, occupational, smoking and illicit drug use variables was applied, as well as variables on the load on the tasks undertaken at work, based on the questionnaire NASA Task Load Index. For data analysis, we used the analysis of the Poisson regression model. Results:the demands physical demand and total effort showed greater effect on the overall workload, indicating high overall load on port work (134 employees - 58.8%). The following remained associated statistically with high levels of workload: age (p = 0.044), to be employee of the wharfage (p = 0.006), work only at night (p = 0.025), smoking (p = 0.037) and use of illegal drugs (p = 0.029). Conclusion:the workload in this type of activity was high, and the professional category and work shift the factors that contributed to the increase, while the age proved to be a factor associated with a decrease.

Identification of processed tuna products sold by the Brazilian market

The composition of processed food is a concern of consumers, of the fishery industry and governmental agencies. The specific composition of canned tuna in three Brazilian brands was evaluated using Single-Strand Conformational Polymorphism (SSCP) of the cytochrome b gene by comparison with patterns of fresh tuna samples and tuna-related species landed at Santa Catarina ports (South Brazil). Thirteen SSCP patterns were obtained from fresh samples, and the specific variety was confirmed by analyzing their sequences. Inconsistencies were found in the fishery statistics of Auxis thazard thazard and Scomber japonicus reported from Brazilian ports, where fresh samples instead were represented mostly by Auxis rochei rochei and Scomber colias. A case of introgression was detected between A. t. thazard and Katsuwonus pelamis. The skipjack tuna K. pelamis composed seven out of eight of the processed tuna products analyzed, and two brands showed products containing a mixture of tuna (K. pelamis or Thunnus albacares) and the less commercially valuable bonito meat (A. t. thazard), which reinforces the need for the control of canned tuna in the Brazilian market.

Análise da dinâmica do trabalho portuário: estudo comparativo entre os portos do Mucuripe e do Pecém, no Ceará

Resumo Introdução: apresenta-se uma análise do trabalho nos dois portos do Estado do Ceará – o Porto do Mucuripe, que, pela Lei de Modernização dos Portos de 1993, possui um Órgão Gestor de Mão de Obra responsável pela gestão dos Trabalhadores Portuários Avulsos, e o Porto do Pecém, terminal de uso privado misto, administrado por empresa pública, que funciona com prestadoras de serviços. Objetivos: comparar os portos quanto às condições de trabalho e à dinâmica laboral de operações específicas comuns aos dois portos, assim como os riscos à saúde dos trabalhadores envolvidos nas atividades operacionais. Métodos: entrevistas com gerentes, técnicos e trabalhadores, bem como observações e filmagens das operações portuárias nos anos de 2010 e 2011. Resultados: o trabalho em ambos os portos assemelha-se quanto a operações, maquinário e na exposição a riscos. A análise mostrou diferenças no tipo de carga manuseada nos dois portos e em algumas das atividades desenvolvidas, mas constatou-se que a principal diferença se dá na organização do trabalho. As diferenças residem na forma de contratação e remuneração, supervisão e ritmo de trabalho. Conclusões: as inovações tecnológicas, como informaram os entrevistados, levaram à redução de alguns agravos à saúde nos dois portos, mas a reestruturação produtiva, concretizada na lei, trouxe novos riscos ocupacionais e possibilitou a intensificação do ritmo de trabalho.

GESTÃO PORTUÁRIA NO BRASIL: CRIAÇÃO OU DESTRUIÇÃO DE VALOR?

The port management activity, which in Brazil has typically been performed by public entities, now sees an opportunity to be executed by private agents. However, various organizations responsible for port management in Brazil presented very modest financial performance, if not defective. When not in financial deficit, a substantial part of the gains occurred by financial revenues instead of gains derived by the operational assets. These aspects illustrate the main issues addressed in this work, as determined by questioning how attractive is the operational performance of Brazilian ports to the private sector. From the perspective of value generation, this paper presents an analysis based on the Economic Value Added (EVA) metrics, which seeks to understand the main features associated with the management of these enterprises, in addition to observing how certain factors relate to the creation of value for this activity.

Avaliação de unidades portuárias brasileiras com análise envoltória de dados e o método multicritério ordinal de Copeland

<p>Como o tipo de carga influi diretamente na infraestrutura necessária à sua movimentação, algumas unidades portuárias buscam a especialização ou diversificação das atividades. Este trabalho utiliza a Análise Envoltória de Dados e o método multicritério ordinal de Copeland para avaliar a importância relativa de cada unidade do setor portuário brasileiro para o comércio nacional, dentro do respectivo segmento em que cada uma delas atua, comparando-se ambas as técnicas. Dada a não homogeneidade, as unidades são distribuídas em oito clusters, conforme a natureza da carga que operam. Como tal segregação é imediata, não é usada nenhuma ferramenta matemática para este fim. Em seguida, são aplicadas as duas abordagens supracitadas de apoio à decisão. No primeiro caso, é usado um modelo com input unitário, em que o input representa a própria existência da unidade portuária; além disto, para aumentar o poder de discriminação, utiliza-se o índice de eficiência composto normalizado no lugar do índice padrão. Os resultados indicam que as ordenações Copeland e do índice composto são bastante semelhantes. O presente trabalho também esclarece as diferenças entre os resultados de DEA com input unitário e de métodos multicritérios ordinais, indicando o modelo mais adequado em cada situação.</p>

Public-private partnerships and scale efficiency in Brazilian ports: Evidence from two-stage DEA analysis

This paper assesses the impacts of public-private partnerships on major Brazilian public ports. It is proposed that these kinds of arrangements with private terminal operators could help achieving higher levels of scale efficiency by enhancing coordination processes, providing more adequate information technologies, and higher connectivity with other transportation modes. Methodology relies on factor extraction of inputs/outputs as a first step to compute DEA efficiency estimates, followed by truncated bootstrapped regression analysis to test different contextual variables. Results indicate a strong positive impact of public-private partnerships on port scale efficiency, corroborating their impacts in relation to the most productive scale size.