The ebbing of the rainy season in northern Brazil has allowed the government´s transport infrastructure department DNIT to resume paving the final segments of a highway that is critical for grains delivery.
The BR-163 highway links center-west soybean and corn farms with ports in the lower Amazon basin.
At the same time, the infrastructure ministry approved technical studies for a proposed concession to operate and maintain a 970km segment of the BR-163, MT-220 and BR-230 highways that link most of Mato Grosso state grain-producing areas to river ports in the lower Amazon.
The studies will now be analyzed by the highway regulator (ANTT), which will need to hold public hearings before an auction for the concession can move ahead. The concession model also needs to be approved by the national audit court (TCU), which means that the concession sale is unlikely to take place this year.
In March 2019, seasonal rains in Para state turned the roughly 50km of unpaved segments of BR-163 into mud, stranding thousands of truckers hauling grains from Brazil's leading grain-producing state of Mato Grosso to the northern arc of ports in Para.
Failure to pave the highways has impaired the region´s export potential and disrupted the global flow of soybeans and corn to international markets in recent years. Although thousands of truckers were stranded on the washed-out segments of the BR-163 for about a week so far this year, previous years were even worse.
In the first five months of 2019, ports in northern Brazil exported 10.87mn t of soybeans, up from 9.91mn t in the same five-month period of 2018, according to the Brazilian grain exporters' association (ANEC).
In a separate transport development, the government also plans to award a build-and-operate concession for a 933km railway, which would run between Sinop in northern Mato Grosso and the Miritituba grains terminal on the Tapajos river. The railway would have initial capacity to transport 20mn t/yr of grains.
