The Canal Galheta Dredging Consortium (CCGD) won the auction for the Paranaguá Port Waterway Channel, held at B3 in São Paulo on Wednesday afternoon. This marks the first-ever auction of a port access channel in Brazil. The project foresees investments of R$1.2 billion over 25 years, with the possibility of extending the contract for up to 70 years.
The winning bidder must make improvements, including deepening the port’s draft (starting in the fifth year of the concession) from the current 13.3 meters to 15.5 meters. The bidding criterion was the lowest tariff relative to the port authority’s current rate, with a maximum discount of 12.63%.
CCGD and China’s Chec Dredging Co. Ltd. both offered the maximum discount, taking the auction to the live round, where the deciding factor became the concession fee offer. In a close contest, CCGD won with a bid of R$276 million. The Brazilian company DTA Engenharia and Belgium’s Jan de Nul also submitted offers but were outbid.
“We combined FTS’s local expertise with Deme’s global experience — one of the world’s largest dredging companies. This is a historic milestone, the first concession of a port access channel in Brazil, which will benefit operators, exporters, and the entire country,” said André Maragliano from FTS, representing the consortium.
FTS has operated in logistics for 35 years in Paraná’s ports of Paranaguá and Antonina. To form the consortium, it partnered with Belgium’s Deme, a global dredging specialist.
“We are inaugurating a new concession model that will bring greater efficiency to the port and increase cargo throughput,” said Minister of Ports and Airports Silvio Costa Filho. He stated that the auction will serve as a model for upcoming concessions at the ports of Santos (SP), Itajaí (SC), Salvador (BA), and Rio Grande (RS).
More competitiveness
According to the ministry, the auction will make Paranaguá more attractive for container and agribusiness logistics, especially once the three terminals auctioned in April 2025 — focused on dry bulk — begin operating. The new investments are expected to double the port’s capacity to handle agricultural exports and open opportunities to ship an additional 20 million tonnes per year.
Currently, the port handles 2,600 ships per year, mainly carrying bulk commodities like soybeans and animal protein. The deeper channel will bring operational efficiency, as each extra centimeter of draft adds 60 tonnes of cargo capacity to a vessel’s hold.
Below is a historical chart of long-haul container throughput at the Port of Paranaguá since January 2022, created with DataLiner data (excluding cabotage, transshipment, and internal movements):
Long-haul container throughput at the Port of Paranaguá | Jan 2022 – Aug 2025 | TEU
Source: DataLiner (Click here to request a demo)
“As the first auction of its kind, the project drew enormous interest. The participation of multiple groups shows market appetite and suggests that similar upcoming projects will also attract strong competition,” said João Paulo Pessoa, a public-law specialist and partner at Toledo Marchetti Advogados.
According to Antaq, in the first half of 2025, the Port of Paranaguá was the second-busiest public terminal in Brazil, handling 30.9 million tonnes — a 2.6% year-over-year increase.
Earlier in the day, Petrobras won the concession for the RDJ07 terminal at the Port of Rio de Janeiro with a R$104 million bid (the minimum bid was R$1).
The Maceió Passenger Maritime Terminal (TMP), located at the Organized Port of Maceió, was also awarded to the Britto Macelog II consortium with a R$50,000 fee. The group is based in Maceió and had no competitors.
All these assets are part of the second block of port concessions being auctioned in 2025 by the Ministry of Ports and Airports (MPor) and Antaq, with total investments estimated at R$1.22 billion.
Source: O Globo
