With demand for port operations growing at 15% a year, Santa Catarina is having difficulty handling the outflow of the region's industrial output. With the incentive of the State, governor Luiz Henrique da Silveira signed the agreement for the construction of Brazil's first private container terminal (TECON). Located in Itapoá in northern Santa Catarina, the new undertaking is part of a joint venture agreement between Conglomerado Battistella and Aliança Navegação e Logística.

In its first phase, the new terminal, named Tecon Santa Catarina, will have installed capacity to handle 300,000 containers a year, adding around 50% to the current 700,000 handled in São Francisco do Sul, Itajaí and Imbituba. Tecon, situated 40 km from Joinville, will absorb investments of US$100 million, 44% from business groups that are partners in the enterprise - Battistella and Aliança Navegação - and 56% from BID (Inter-American Development Bank).

The natural depth of the future Tecon will be 16m. This will also make it the most modern container terminal in southern Brazil and the only one capable of handling ships with capacities of up to nine thousand TEUs. Projected to begin operation in 2007.

Says director Julian Thomas, "Our company will be placing Tecon Santa Catarina on the routes of its large-capacity ships, those with 5.5 thousand TEUs, making it into a coastal shipping center/hub for cargo coming from Argentina and Uruguay, and from other Brazilian ports."