Brazil signs 25-year lease for Santana port grain terminal

Brazil’s Ports and Airports Ministry said it signed the lease for the MCP01 terminal at the Port of Santana in Amapá on October 23. The agreement provides for R$150.2 million of investment over a 25-year term. The terminal is intended for handling and storing vegetable solid bulk, especially soybeans and corn. The announcement followed CS Infra’s winning bid in a February 2026 auction; the signature formalizes the operating terms for that awarded area rather than announcing a new auction or a completed expansion.

The planned works include conveyor belts, a new ship loader, and improvements to the piers and land-side infrastructure. The ministry said the package is intended to modernize port facilities and improve the movement of agricultural cargo through the Northern region and the Arco Norte export corridor. The release does not publish a new terminal capacity figure, construction cost breakdown, or a quantified throughput gain attributable to MCP01, so the investment amount should not be interpreted as a measured increase in annual cargo handling.

The ministry placed the lease within a wider set of port projects in Santana. It said the MCP01 and MCP03 terminal lease projects together represent R$239.1 million in planned investment between 2023 and 2026. Separately, it cited a planned R$11.6 million upgrade to about 1.2 kilometres of road access, with work forecast to begin in November 2026 and finish in November 2027. That access-road project is a separate item in the announcement and is not included in the stated MCP01 lease investment.

The source reported that the Port of Santana handled about 3.6 million tonnes in 2025, 13.54% more than in 2024, and moved 403,000 tonnes in January and February 2026, up 6.52% from the same two months a year earlier. Those figures describe port-wide past activity, not MCP01’s own cargo or a projection for the leased terminal. The ministry listed soy, wood, corn, soybean-oil residues and manganese among the port’s principal cargoes, showing that the terminal’s planned grain role would sit within a broader commodity mix.

The ministry also described Santana as an important link between central-western production areas and international markets through northern export routes. Amapá’s state and municipal representatives said the longer lease structure could improve investment certainty and support local activity, while the federal announcement framed the project around logistics efficiency. Those are stated expectations; the release does not quantify employment, freight savings, contracted volumes or the date when the new equipment will enter service. The contract therefore marks a formal implementation step, with construction and operational results still ahead.