The Terminal in Santa Catarina was also named as the port with the best indicator for loyalty and customer recommendation in the country, for the fifth year running.

Porto Itapoá is the port with the most satisfied customers, according to the IBRC

Porto Itapoá has the best customer satisfaction indicators in Brazil, according to the Ibero-Brazilian Institute for Customer Relations (IBRC). The Terminal also had the best Net Promoter Score (NPS) for the fifth year running. This indicates the number of the port’s customers who would be willing to recommend their services to others.

The main areas responsible for this, according to Cássio Schreiner, the President of Porto Itapoá, are Customer Experience and Operations. “We have a specific department to serve our customers and handle all their needs with us. While, from an operational point of view, we have heavily invested in technology and training for our staff,” he said, adding, “Our mission is to provide the best experience for, not only our customers, but also everyone involved in our service chain.”

The department that is exclusively responsible for handling customers at Porto Itapoá is called Customer Care and it began operating in 2017, intending to centralize all Customer requirements as part of one service. “We want to provide customers with a clear and easy way to deal with all matters when using the Terminal,” explained Schreiner.

Porto Itapoá will be the first in South America to use remote controlled cranes

Porto Itapoá acquires new scanner for inspecting containers

Porto Itapoá had the highest growth among the five largest container terminals in Brazil

Investment and Technology

Porto Itapoá will be the first port in South America to use remote controlled RTG (Rubber-Tired Gantry) cranes. This purchase of ten machines (at an investment of over 25 million dollars) will increase the operational flexibility of the Terminal. The first of these will be arriving in May, while the next is scheduled for November this year.

As well as making it even safer and easier for workers at the Terminal, they are hybrid machines that use up to six times less fuel than a conventional diesel-powered RTG. The new RTGs are capable of stacking six containers and only 27 terminal in the whole world use this equipment, made by the Chinese manufacturer, ZPMC.

In addition, Porto Itapoá has purchased a Portainer (a machine that transfers containers between the quay and the ship) with a 70m reach, worth 11 million USD. The Terminal already has six portainers, four with a 55m reach and 2 with a 65m reach.

Recently, Porto Itapoá purchased a mobile scanner for inspecting containers, for around BRL 10 million. This equipment is the HCVM XT model, made by the British company Smiths Detection. It is the first of its kind in Brazil and will operate from March this year. 

Other Awards

Porto Itapoá won the Supplier Day 2022 award in November 2022, presented by the BMW group, which celebrates initiatives by its suppliers that are dedicated to sustainable transport and social responsibility. The Santa Catarina port was the only company in the logistics and foreign trade sector to compete in the sustainability category. The winning initiative was an accelerated composting program using biotechnology, which the Terminal had been running since last February (2022).

In October last year, the Terminal achieved the gold seal for the Brazilian GHG Protocol Program, for its inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions for 2022. The program is run by the Sustainability Studies Center of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (GVCES) in partnership with the Environment Ministry.

Porto Itapoá was also in the ranking of the “500 Biggest in the South” occupying 229th position overall and 48th place among companies from Santa Catarina. As a result, the Terminal has climbed three positions in the overall ranking (it was 232nd in 2020) and six positions in the Santa Catarina list.

Growth

Porto Itapoá handled 885,822 TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) in 2022, which represented growth of 14.28% in relation to the amount handled by the Terminal in 2021. It, therefore, is growing at the greatest rate of the five largest container terminals in Brazil.

The number of ships that passed through Itapoá also grew: there were 555 ships in 2022, 4.9% higher than the previous year. Exports through the Terminal also grew by around 13.25% last year. The data comes from the National Waterway Transport Agency (ANTAQ) and does not include empty containers or those in transshipment. If you add the data for these to that from ANTAQ, Porto Itapoá handled 950,512 TEUs in 2022.

About Porto Itapoá

Porto Itapoá began operating in June 2011, and is considered one of the most agile, efficient and sustainable terminals in Latin America and one of the largest and most important in the country for handling containerized cargo, according to the National Waterway Transport Agency (ANTAQ). Porto Itapoá is located on the northern coast of Santa Catarina, among some of the most productive regions in Brazil, serving importers and exporters from a wide range of industries.

Its fortunate location, in Babitonga Bay, provides safe and easy conditions for mooring ships. The Bay has calm, deep waters and is ideal for large vessels, which are becoming increasingly important in global shipping.