* por John Cuttino

For the Port of Houston Authority (PHA), Brazil has always been a leading trading partner. Brazil annually ranks in the top five countries that Houston does business with in terms of value.  To put it simply, Houston buys what Brazil is selling and vice versa.  Brazil’s strategic importance to the Port of Houston Authority led to the establishment of a dedicated Brazil Representation in March 2006.  The initial objectives of this work have been to liaison with steamship lines, shippers, ports and class entities to promote and develop trade and more direct services between Brazil and Houston.  Santos, in this respect, is the most important Brazilian port for Houston, the most connected, and the one where Houston is concentrating its effort.

 

The Port of Houston Authority is entering 2007 in a unique situation of growth and leadership. Houston is the second leading port in the USA in tonnage, measuring an estimated 215 million short tons in 2005.  We are the leading U.S. port in terms of foreign tonnage and the tenth largest port in the world.  In 2005, we had more than 7,000 vessel calls.  Our principal cargo objectives are to attract more containerized and breakbulk cargo.  For Brazil, PHA targets coffee, steel, natural stone, forest products, furniture, ceramic tile, synthetic resins, mining equipment, vehicles, project cargo, and oil well equipment.  We are actively engaged in attracting shippers or pools of shippers to establish dedicated distribution centers, taking advantage of Houston’s vast hinterland.

 

The State of Texas alone represents a market of 25 million consumers and a GDP of more than $1 trillion not to mention our rail, truck and barge connectivity with points in the U.S. Midwest, West Coast, and Southwest.  In 2006, we imported 5.4 million short tons of steel, the most volume in 25 years and more than double the 2.6 million tons imported in 2005.  Preliminary 2006 figures for our total container trade (exports and imports) reached 1.6 million TEUs, showing 1 percent increase over 2005.  This will all change in 2007; this month the Port of Houston Authority opens the first berth of its new $2.5 billion Bayport Container Terminal.  With a grand opening celebration scheduled for February 8, Houston is poised for new container growth after years of operating at near capacity. 

 

What is more, Port of Houston Executive Director H. Thomas Kornegay as President of the International Association of Ports and Harbours will preside over the International Ports and Harbours Conference, hosted by Houston April 27-May 4, 2007. 

 

In 2006, the Port of Houston Authority’s Brazil Representation lost no time to connect and strengthen ties with Santos. The results of this were the visits of PHA Chairman James Edmonds, Managing Director Wade Battles, and Trade Development Director John Horan to Santos, Guaruja, and Cubatão in August, highlighted by a tour of Cosipa and visit to Codesp, graciously assisted by the Grupo A Tribuna and Vasco de Gama Turismo.  The week immediately after our visit to Santos, we had the distinct honor to receive the Grupo Santos Export for two days in Houston, where we toured our ship channel, Barbours Cut Container Terminal and new container terminal under construction at Bayport. The Santos Export Group represents the highest-level and most numerous Brazil delegation to ever visit the Port of Houston Authority. 

 

The Port of Houston Authority took advantage of that opportunity to renew our existing cooperation agreement with Codesp, first signed in 1985. 

As Santos and Houston represent ports vital to the economies of their countries with wide-ranging hinterlands, an emphasis of this PHA Brazil Representation is to forge closer ties with the Santos community.  For being diverse ports with extensive ship channels, numerous and varied terminals, Houston and Santos face similar challenges of competitiveness, expansion, congestion, security, landside access limitations, dredging, and environment. Our ports share a maturing public-private dialogue, which the PHA Brazil Representation also seeks to foment as we build more trade.