Giant shipping lines AP Moller-Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) could have a scrap on their hands as they vie to operate a terminal in Brazil.
Port companies have united through their industry association ABTP in an attempt to block the Danish and Swiss groups bidding in an auction to run terminal 10 at South America’s largest port, Santos.
The dispute is set to escalate in the coming weeks, the Valor daily reported.
ABTP could ask Brazil’s antitrust watchdog CADE, ports regulator Antaq or Brazil’s audit court TCU for an investigation into the shipowners, according to ABTP president Jesualdo Silva.
Silva has been quoted as saying: “The indiscriminate and unregulated participation of economic groups that operate in the maritime transport of containers, the so-called shipowners, in the bidding processes can, in the medium and long term, generate an increase in freight.”
He also said their involvement can reduce Brazilian cargo routes and cause an increase in the cost of other links in the logistics chain due to “anti-competitive practices”.
Silva is arguing against market concentration in the hands of large lines.
They already have a strong presence in Brazil, he said.
Danish giant Maersk, through its subsidiary APM Terminals, operates two ports in the southern state of Santa Catarina, Itajai and Itapoa, and Pecem, in the north-eastern state of Ceara.
Aponte family-owned MSC owns two terminals through its subsidiary TIL, Navegantes in Santa Catarina state and Multi Rio in Rio de Janeiro.
Maersk and MSC have not commented on the matter.
