Analysis of the logistics infrastructure used by large export industries in the State of Santa Catarina

Abstract

This article studies the current state and the main problems involving the transport logistics infrastructure used by the large export industries in the State of Santa Catarina, Brazil. The data was collected from document analysis and 19 questionnaires answered by 19 companies. The results showed that the State shows important advantages such as: the existence of four export harbors (there will be five of them with the conclusion of the harbor in Itapoa, being two of them public and three private), no other Brazilian State has this many options; all harbors in the State are connected to the road network that crosses and links the national territory to this region, which is one of the largest industrialized areas in the country (North-eastern Santa Catarina, Itapocu Valley, Itajai Valley and Southern Santa Catarina); the presence of a railroad network linking to two harbors (in the cities of São Franciso do Sul and Imbituba); and the the aggro-industrial region of Western Santa Catarina linked, through the BR-282 and BR-470 highways, to two harbors specialized in cold storage products. Certain deficiencies, commonly considered as “strangulation points” in the logistic process, such as the intense traffic of vehicles and the deterioration of highways, were not diagnosed as the main obstacles. The main problems found, as it was evidenced, were the excess of bureaucracy in the government institutions which are responsible for the exportation procedures and the necessity of urgent modernization in the harbor complex.