Memories of the flooding of the Itajai-Acu River in November 2008, which caused severe damage to the Port of Itajai, washing away two berths and temporarily halting port operations was a cold reminder that you can control almost everything except the weather. The deaths of over 100 people were caused by the natural disaster and the Brazilian Government declared the area in a State of Emergency. Once Brazil’s second-largest container port, after the Port of Santos, with throughputs of approximately 682,000 TEU and 694,000 TEU respectively in 2007 and 2008, Itajai’s container throughput fell to fourth place among Brazilian ports in 2009, with combined volume of 593,000 TEU due to the flood damage. But almost two years later, the port of Itajai handed over the reconstructed Berth 2 to the Itajai Port Authority in September 2010. A total of USD176 million in federal government emergency funds were allocated to the reconstruction of berths 1 and 02 and also to dredging works to restore the original depth after the floods. APM Terminals Itajai S/A, which owns and operates a terminal concession in the port, took over the 273m Berth 2 from the Port Authority and continued to finish the reconstruction with the installation of crane rails and electric power infrastructure for quayside ship-to-shore cranes. The terminal has an annual capacity of the 750,000 TEU and both berth no 1 and 2 provide a combined berth length of 558m. But one year on since the opening of Berth no 2, terminal operators in the Itajai Port Complex were hit once again by flood waters from the Itajai-Acu River – fortunately the water did not rise as high as previously experienced but it was enough to halt terminal operations in the port. One APM Terminal berth, two public berths, three Portonave’s and all other berths of smaller private terminals saw operations come to a full stop. Work is now underway to assess the depths of the access channel and turning circle, as there is concern that the level of siltation built up by the strong currents might affect the depth in the port. On an emergency visit to the Port of Itajaí, Special Secretariat of Ports Minister Leonidas Cristino assessed the damage caused by the Itajaí-Açú River. “We will do whatever is needed to get the Port of Itajaí and the entire Itajaí Port Complex back to operations with the very same depth conditions prior to the flooding,” said Cristino. The Minister will secure federal funds to guarantee the dredging of the access channels and turning circle. He also assured that even before the depth measurement studies (bathymetry survey) takes place, a special group of SEP technicians will be assigned to speed up the proceedings. “Itajaí Port Complex is extremely important within the context of Brazilian ports and all operations shall be resumed very shortly,” he said. With respect to the slight damages caused to APM Terminal’s berth 1, the Minister stated that repairs should be on the operator’s expenses considering its condition as a lessee of the damaged berth in question. “We are absolutely sure that APM Terminals will start the necessary repair works on the damaged berth as it is of its interest and will resume operations as soon as possible,” he added. The city Mayor Jandir Bellini, who accompanied the Minister during his entire visit, remarked on SEP’s great concern about the situation and its exceptional willingness to help and find a prompt solution to the problem. Bathymetry procedures should start as soon as the river current slows down (at one point it reached 10 knots). The speed of the river currents was caused by an incredibly large volume of rainfall which inevitably saw the dams located upriver overflow. Large volumes of water from the dams had to be promptly released into the river resulting in a huge increase in the speed of the flow of water and resulting in damaging some parts of APM’s berth structure. APM Terminals has not yet officially announced the severity of the damage suffered by Berth 1 since it first needs to carry out a technical assessment which will be overseen by a group of specialised engineers.
For the first nine months of this year APM Terminals (including the public port) handled a total of 342.595 TEU (up 28% compared to the same period in 2010), while Portonave handled 395.431 TEU (down 5% compared to 2010) and other terminals handled a total of 889 TEU giving a total of 738.915 TEU for the whole complex (average overall increase of 7% over 2010).
Dredging depths
There might be one positive element to the story, namely that flooding of the Itajai Port Complex may have been prevented by the dredging works that started back earlier in the year. “The deepening of the channel and all other dredging works, performed by Jan De Nul, prevented huge volumes of water from overflowing and flooding up many large areas of the city and region in comparison to what happened in the great flooding that ravaged the whole state back in 2008, not to mention that this time the rainfall was way much more intense than the one recorded in that year,” said Bellini. Back in March, Minister of Ports, Leonidas Cristino, in the presence of the State Governor and City of Itajai Mayor, awarded a USD32 million contract in a signing ceremony to Belgium-based dredging contractor Jan De Nul. The capital dredging contract included the deepening of both the turning circle and approach channels (from -11m to -14m). The funds for the contract came from the National Dredging Program (PNG). Since the signing, Jan De Nul operated their 223m-long Charles Darwin hopper dredger of 30.500m3 carrying capacity. The dredger is the largest and most powerful ever to operate in Brazilian waters. The equipment is brand new and came directly from the shipyard to Itajaí Port Complex to carry out the contracted dredging operations. A smaller dredger has also been deployed to carry out works alongside the river banks and in some other smaller and shallow areas where the hopper dredger is unable to access. In addition to the contracted work, Jan De Nul will now start work on re-dredging previous work to achieve pre-flooding depths in the port.