A view of Port of Paranagua, Brazil. File photo: VCG

Brazil is building a large, modern port complex to facilitate trade with Asia, its main market, and benefit a range of productive sectors.

The 1,800-hectare facility, called Porto Central, is located in the coastal town of Presidente Kennedy, in southeast Espirito Santo state, on the border with neighboring Rio de Janeiro state.

At a seminar organized Tuesday by China's Consulate General in Rio de Janeiro, the general director of Porto Central, Jose Maria Novaes, invited Chinese companies to join the project and make use of the port, designed to be South America's most modern, when it opens in late 2023.

"Asia, particularly China, is Brazil's largest trading partner, and this international trade flow, mainly of commodities from Brazil to Asia and industrialized products from Asia to Brazil, requires large ships" that few Brazilian ports can now accommodate, noted Novaes.

"There are few ports in Brazil capable of loading and unloading the world's great ships. That is the differential of the Porto Central project: being able to receive the world's largest ships, in each class, at each port terminal," he said.

The port will feature a series of terminals, an internal channel with gradually decreasing water depth for ships sailing in, and 13 docks for ships carrying liquids, said Novaes.

"It is an industrial port enabling water, energy and gas at competitive prices, with terminals for the export of raw materials and semi-finished products, and with the flexibility to accommodate the interests of project developers," he added.

The Secretary of Development of Espirito Santo state, Marcos Kneip, told participants at the seminar, "Porto Central is becoming a reality. It is a port industrial complex that will serve oil and gas, mining and agriculture companies, and support the off-shore industry."