BOARD OF DIRECTORS

ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE

The Port of Itajai is considered one of the most operating ports of Brazil. This title is owed to two important factors: an excellent infrastructure and quality labour. These two factors started to deserve special attention of the administration after the concession of the Port to the Municipality, about five years ago. It is the only port terminal decentralised of the government through municipal autonomy and with a management that is serving as model to other Brazilian ports. Itajai is the largest exporter of frozen and refrigerated cargo and the third one exporting goods in containers coming from all over the national territory.

This situation in the national ranking is owed to its terrestrial and fluvial infrastructure. It has the largest number of plugs for reefer containers of Latin American, with more than 3 thousand installations in the port and retro port areas. There is a dredge that operates daily in the maintenance of the river depth in 33 feet, and the number of mooring has grown significantly each month.

The time for the permanence of the ships at the docks has been reduced considerably. With a speedy labour and investments of R$39.5 million in 2002. The port owns the most modern and agile equipment of Brazil. Today, through the partnership with the Valley of Itajai Container's Terminal (Teconvi), it operates with two cranes on land called mobile cranes which were imported from Italy and with the newest reach stacker forklift in the port business.

This made the current revenue of the Port jump to R$2.2 million surpassing in 19% the revenue in 1999. In approximately two years time, the Port will be making available two "portainers" These equipment will be installed after the extension of the docks in 240 m. The construction will start in 2003 and is part of the second phase of Teconvi investments.

The best apparatus of the port also caused an impact to the prices, occurring a retraction of 59% from 1999 to 2002. Instead of US$5.02 there has been a decrease to US$2.08 per ton respectively, and it can be compared to the tariffs of the great international ports. Other segments linked to the navigation and international commerce grew up together with the port.

With regards to the economical impact of the port terminal on the local economy, statistics of the Treasure Department of Itajai states that the collection of taxes was R$42 million in 1996 and R$52,75 million on the following year. In 1998 the value reached 60.01 million, in 1999, R$67.65 million, in 2000, R$78.14 million and in 2001 R$93.2 million. In 2002 it surpassed R$100 million. Only with tax on any kind of services (ISSQN), the municipality collects approximately R$1.4 million a month.