Chinese firms plan bid for railway linking Brazil’s grain regions
State-owned companies to form consortium to take part in auction for right to build and operate 1,100km Ferrogrão route
A group of state-owned Chinese firms plan to form a consortium to bid in an auction for the right to build and operate a railway known as Ferrogrão, Brazil’s secretary for the government’s public-private partnerships programme, Adalberto Vasconcelos, said on Friday.
With 1,100km, Ferrogrão will connect grain-producing regions in Brazil’s centre-west to the port of Miritituba, in the northern Pará state. The railway is expected to be an alternative to BR-163 road, currently the only way to take grains from central Brazil to northern ports.
The project is estimated to demand 12.6 billion reais (US$3.89 billion) in investments.
Vasconcelos said he was recently in China and was told about the intention from certain Chinese companies to form a consortium to take part in the auction, scheduled for the first half of 2018. He did not name the prospective bidders.
“The Chinese are very interested in Ferrogrão,” he said, referring to state-owned enterprises in sectors such as cement and steel.
In May, Brazilian and Chinese officials launched a joint Brazil-China investment promotion fund to increase productive capacity.