During the three days of Intermodal South America, the stand of Wilson Sons, the largest integrated port and maritime logistics operator in Brazil, received hundreds of visitors, from market players, clients and suppliers, to the general public. From last Tuesday to Thursday night (March 2nd), the unprecedented global study conducted by the company was released and was available on tablets set up at the stand for visitors to read. The company mapped out 528 startups in the sector, with solutions that directly meet the demands of this industry, based in 45 countries on five continents.
The study was supported by Cubo Maritime & Port, an initiative of Cubo Itaú in collaboration with Wilson Sons, Porto do Açu, and Hidrovias do Brasil, to promote an alliance with major corporations, startups, investment funds and other stakeholders in the port industry.
At its stand at the 27th edition of Intermodal, which attracted more than 500 exhibitors and about 40,000 visitors, Wilson Sons executives and employees exchanged information, strengthened relationships with stakeholders and presented the company’s diversified portfolio, offering new solutions to Brazil’s maritime and port industry as well as the global logistics chain. With 185 years of operations and nationwide coverage, Wilson Sons is constantly adopting new technologies to support sustainable development in Brazil.
The company’s history, told by an interactive approach, was another attraction in the busy aisles of Intermodal. At its F70 stand, an interactive timeline of Wilson Sons, starting in its foundation in 1837, presented, in English and in Portuguese, its main milestones, including its listing in the Novo Mercado segment of B3, the Brazilian stock exchange, which requires the highest level of governance.
“We are very happy to participate again in the biggest event in Latin America. It is another opportunity to connect with our clients. Maritime and port logistics gets stronger when we share our experiences at times like these,” said Wilson Sons COO Arnaldo Calbucci.
The company’s businesses include two container terminals (in Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul); 80 tugboats (the largest and most powerful fleet in Brazil); two shipyards in Guarujá (São Paulo); 23 offshore support vessels flying the Brazilian flag; two offshore support bases in Guanabara Bay (Rio de Janeiro); a bonded logistics facility in Santo André (São Paulo); and one of the largest independent shipping agencies in Brazil.
At Intermodal, Wilson Sons announced the acquisition of ABB’s Optical Character Recognition (OCR) system for ship-to-shore gantry cranes at the Rio Grande Container Terminal, Brazil’s most automated container facility. The system includes the QuayPro module to digitalize container stowage confirmation processes. The company has been using ABB’s automated gate systems both at its Tecon Rio Grande and Tecon Salvador container terminals since 2013. “Adding Crane OCR with QuayPro to the existing gate system supports the company’s vision to automate and digitalize terminal processes,” said Paulo Bertinetti, executive director of the Rio Grande container terminal.
Throughout its history of nearly two centuries, Wilson Sons has been supporting the development of global trade and decisively collaborating with Brazil’s competitiveness and technological progress. The company works hard to optimise the logistics chain, which is key to the economy and development of Brazil, where 90% of the goods traded are transported by sea, accounting for about 24% of the Brazilian economy. It should be noted that ports and shipping are the foundations of the world economy: 80% to 90% of global trade uses sea transport. Transported goods are worth US$ 5 trillion in added value.
To discuss these important innovation agendas as well as the new solutions and prospects for the port industry, two Wilson Sons directors were invited to participate in the 1st Intermodal South America Conference. Digital Transformation director Eduardo Valença participated in the panel “The role of technology in the development of the national maritime and port industry.” Mediated by Cubo Itaú CEO Paulo Costa, the panel featured Guilherme Rosetti (founding partner of Argonáutica), Vinicius Patel (Porto do Açu COO) and Mariana Yoshioka (director of Engineering and Innovation at Hidrovias do Brasil).
“We are combining efforts in favour of the maritime and port sector, to encourage entrepreneurs with the objective of increasing the productivity of operations. We are currently experiencing an unprecedented moment in the industry and we need to seize this opportunity to achieve efficiency gains and more sustainable operations, while promoting the emergence, development and proliferation of startups, with impacting solutions for our industry,” Valença said.
The executive director of Wilson Sons’ Salvador Container Terminal and Santo André Logistics Centre (in São Paulo) Demir Lourenço participated in the panel “International trade post-pandemic: logistics operators’ perceptions of the changes in production chains.” Mediated by Marcella Cunha (executive director of ABOL), the panel featured Daniel Salcedo (commercial director at Brado), Djalma Vilela (Multilog president) and Giovani Grassi (head of trade management and product development at Ceva).
Lourenço said that we are experiencing a period of disruption due to the pandemic, which caused transformations that are here to stay, such as the increase in remote work and e-commerce, leading the entire sector to reinvent itself. The executive director notes that since 2022 there has been a gradual return to normality in the market. Despite the challenges, the lower levels of freight rates, for example, should favour the trade flow in the country.
“It is important to look at the modes of transport and the opportunities. Brazil, with over 8,000 kilometres of coastline, has not yet taken advantage of its full potential. With the return to normality in the market, there is also a great opportunity to recover cabotage operations, restoring the growth levels seen until 2019 (close to double digits),” he concluded.
Source: Wilson Sons