Banca de DEFESA: ALINE CARNEIRO LEAL

BRAZILIAN PORTS: Analysis of the operational and financial efficiency of ports public, delegated and granted

Operational efficiency. Financial efficiency. DEA. Federal ports. Delegated ports

The maritime transport infrastructure is important for Brazil's economic integration, as the country has 35 public ports. Law No. 9.277/1996 authorized the Federal Government to delegate the administration and operation of ports to municipalities, states, and the Federal District. Thus, public ports can be classified as federal or delegated. Delegated ports are public ports where the Federal Government has transferred the responsibility for administration and operation to other public entities, such as states, municipalities, and public consortia. The aim of this study is to assess the existence of operational and financial efficiency differences between federal and delegated ports. Data from 2019 to 2023 were analyzed. For operational efficiency, infrastructure variables were considered, as well as performance variables such as gross cargo handled and the inverse of the average docking time. For financial efficiency, operational expenses, activity costs, gross cargo handled, and the number of dockings were considered. The efficiency analysis was conducted through Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with variable returns to scale. Recently, there was the concession of public ports, which were also the subject of the study. In summary, delegated ports showed higher operational efficiency values when compared to ports under federal administration, through the Port Authorities (Companhias Docas). Delegated ports accounted for 60% of ports considered highly efficient, 62.5% in the medium efficiency group, and 30.7% in the low efficiency group. Regarding financial efficiency, federal ports were classified into medium and high efficiency categories, each with 50% of the ports; two delegated ports performed poorly, with low efficiency, and seven ports were classified as highly efficient. The Mann-Whitney test was conducted to verify the statistical significance of the efficiency values obtained. The Malmquist index analysis was performed to verify whether there were productivity gains or losses for each port during the study period.