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The company set up a branch in the port of Pecém, in Ceará, with the goal of tripling cargo handling at the site this year; investments to grow in the segment are around R$ 30 million
Following a process of business diversification, Tora has sought new partnerships to expand operations in integrated container logistics and multimodality. In order to grow in this segment, the company is investing around R$ 30 million in expanding structures, setting up new branches and purchasing machinery. This sector is in full development: according to a survey by the National Waterway Transport Agency (Antaq), 160 million tons of cargo were transported by cabotage from January to October 2020 in the country.
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One of Tora's strategies for expansion was the inauguration, at the end of last year, of a branch in the port of Pecém, in the metropolitan region of Fortaleza (CE). For this year, the goal is to triple the amount of containers transported at the site. “We already operated in Bahia, Sergipe, Alagoas and Pernambuco and now we are entering another state in the Northeast, with excellent prospects for growth”, says Tora's commercial director, Márcio Medina.
Tora's work consists of complementing, by road, the services provided by cabotage and railroad companies. In this scenario, it is up to Tora to collect empty containers, transport them to the customer, load them and return to the port. “We are increasingly working to meet the demands of new modes of transport, which consolidates us as a multimodal operator (OTM)”, says Medina. He says that, for this, Tora has partnered with cabotage, navigation and railroad companies.
One of the partners is Log-In Logística Intermodal —a company that operates cabotage navigation, port handling and customized logistics solutions—, with which Tora already operates container cabotage in the ports of Santos and Salvador since the beginning of last year and now in the port of Pecém. “Our strategy is to offer customers a door-to-door solution: in addition to cabotage navigation, we also depend on road transport to pick up the sender and deliver the cargo to the recipient. Tora provides a service that values safety, excellence in service, respect for the customer and is always attuned to new technologies, values shared by our company as well. Undoubtedly, it is a partnership that has the potential to be expanded nationally”, says Felipe Gurgel, Director of Customer Service at Log-in.
According to him, Log-In serves the main ports along the Brazilian coast and has customers who demand cabotage operations. “This is a promising mode, since the country has more than 8 thousand kilometers of navigable coastline. It is also more sustainable, as it enables a significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in truck transport over long distances, and safer, due to the shorter road stretches. For this reason, we need to promote the use of modes that are more suitable for each type of logistics required by the customer. Over longer distances, which are close to the coast, for example, maritime transport of cargo between national ports can be more efficient”, adds Gurgel.
At the end of last year, the bill (PL 4.199/2020), also known as “BR do Mar”, was approved by the Chamber of Deputies, which aims to encourage transport by maritime modal. Now under discussion in the Senate, the proposal is to transform the Brazilian coast into a true point of cabotage transport. Among the goals of the Ministry of Infrastructure, through the PL, is the expansion of the annual load of containers transported from 1,2 million TEUs (movement in 2019) to 2 million TEUs in 2022. It also plans to increase capacity by 40% of the maritime fleet dedicated to cabotage over the next three years
Rio-SP road and rail modal
Another Tora multimodal service, implemented in 2020, is a project in partnership with MRS Logística to connect Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo without the need to travel on the Dutra highway. Among the services offered are the collection, spawning, spawning, cross-docking and urban distribution of any type of cargo.
Currently, Tora operates road and rail terminals in Rio de Janeiro (Arará) and São Paulo (Itaquaquecetuba and Suzano). Between July and December of last year, the company invested around R$ 12 million in Itaquaquecetuba. The investment in the machine park reaches R$ 8 million.
As explained by Márcio Medina, Tora makes the road ends, operates the terminals in Rio and SP and supplies the containers; MRS does the rail transport. “We offer customers a complete door-to-door service. The advantages are countless, since the customer makes contact with only one supplier, it is easier to manage accounts payable, it has insurance coverage on the cargo and the container, it has lower costs in the logistics chain, greater transport capacity, in addition to reliability and predictability in collection and deliveries and the lowest environmental impact”, emphasizes Medina.
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about the tora
Created in 1972, Tora is one of the largest integrated logistics solutions companies in the country and operates in the road transport segments in Brazil and Mercosur, multimodal terminals and customs areas. It also maintains a division for the sale of used vehicles.
The company, with 1.500 direct employees and around 1.000 professionals, is headquartered in Contagem (MG). There are 61 branches in 12 Brazilian states and four abroad (two in Argentina, one in Chile and one in Uruguay). Currently, it serves customers with its own fleet of approximately 450 mechanical horsepower and 2 trailers monitored by modern technological resources.
