Transport and sanitation concessions could generate R$160 billion in 5 years, says Abdib

The Brazilian Association of Infrastructure and Basic Industries (Abdib) estimates that the sectors of transport e sanitation should receive around R$ 160 billion in investments by 2026, considering federal, state and municipal concession and public-private partnerships (PPPs) initiatives.

The forecast is part of the Infrastructure Blue Book, a survey launched on Monday (6). The association analyzed more than 1600 concession and PPP projects that have already taken place or are expected to take place by 2026, encompassing the sectors of transport and logistics, sanitation, energy e telecommunications.

Of the total projects, 1160 are assets of oil and gas exploration blocks that were offered by the Union in the 17th round of auctions of the National Petroleum Agency (ANP).

The federal government has the largest number of projects, with 10 in the railway area, 40 federal airports, 34 port terminals and 28 road segments. All must go to auction, foreseeing both new projects and investments in existing concessions.

In this sense, the 7th round of the airport terminal auction should take place in 2022, with investments in the tenders offered estimated at R$ 8 billion. Abdib highlighted the privatization projects of the ports of Santos, São Sebastião, Vitória, Salvador and Itajaí, scheduled for 2022. In the railway sector, the highlight was given to the concessions of the iron grain, scheduled for 2022, and Ferroeste, for 2023.

Considering the states, there are 300 projects, including privatization programs, concessions and PPPs. The research also includes projects from state capitals, with 80 initiatives in the area of ​​economic and social infrastructure.

Accounting for all projects and investment estimates, Abdb estimates an increase in investment of R$19 billion to R$43 billion annually between 2022 and 2026 in the areas of infrastructure and sanitation. With that, the total would be R$ 160.1 billion.

The association stated that the new regulatory framework for the sanitation sector, approved in 2020, allowed for an “important increase in private participation, with investment perspectives of around R$ 60 billion in projects”. The expected investment between 2022 and 2026 is R$ 35.8 billion.

In the telecommunications sector, Abdib expects a total investment of R$ 160 billion in the coming years as a result of the 5G auction, of concession of frequencies for operation, which also took place in 2021.

The survey shows that, between 2019 and 2021, there were 115 auctions for concessions in the sectors, which generated BRL 125 billion in grants with an expectation of more than BRL 500 billion in investments in the coming years.

The year 2021 had 48 auctions until the publication of the research, resulting in BRL 27.8 billion in grants and investments estimated at BRL 58.6 billion in the coming years.

In 2020, R$ 124.2 billion were invested in the four sectors, corresponding to 1.67% of the Gross Domestic Product (START) from the country. However, the organization claims that at least 4.3% of GDP is needed in investments over the next ten years to meet the infrastructure problems facing Brazil.