📋 Tender Overview
While Brazil celebrates the best three-year period in history in its trade balance (2023-2025), ports in the Southeast show a leading role in logistics infrastructure. Consolidated data up to November 2025 shows that the regions terminals functioned as a major lever for foreign trade, handling 635.3 million tons of cargo. The volume represents a growth of 6.01% compared to the same period of the previous year, reaffirming the regions ability to operate, with equal efficiency, both ends of the scale: the massive volume of commodities and high-value-added cargo.
The Southeast demonstrates, in practice, the concept of multimodal efficiency. We have public ports and private terminals there operating in sync to ensure that Brazil does not miss opportunities, analyzes the Minister of Ports and Airports, Silvio Costa Filho.
The performance of the terminals in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Espirito Santo was decisive for Brazilian exports to break a record of 348 billion dollars last year. The Southeast operated in 2025 as a multipurpose hub: it guaranteed the output of iron ore and oil, at the same time that it transported the harvest and received industrial inputs. Proof of this was the 8.3% growth in exports until November, added to the 6.58% increase in long-haul shipping, which confirms that the Brazilian surplus was built on the solid foundation of logistical and operational efficiency.
Acceleration at the end of the year
The fine tuning between production and logistics became evident in the final stretch of 2025. According to data from the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services (Mdic), the record exports in December were driven by the resumption of activity on oil platforms, after scheduled shutdowns.
The regions ports followed this demand. In the month of November alone, the movement of liquid bulk (which includes oil and oil products) in ports in the Southeast was 19.2 million tons, an increase of 22.54% compared to the same period last year. In the year to date (January to November), the value jumps to 206.6 million/t, an increase of 9.01% in comparison.
In the general picture of November, the region had significant logistical growth, moving 59.6 million tons, a 17% jump compared to November 2024. This performance contributed to preventing Brazilian foreign trade from experiencing logistical bottlenecks precisely at the time of greatest international demand.
Ore, agro and general cargo
Year-to-date, data from the National Waterway Transport Agency (Antaq) reveal the absolute leadership of mineral commodities on the regions agenda. Iron ore continues to be the flagship, with 215.9 million tons handled, mainly transported through terminals in Espirito Santo and Rio de Janeiro, such as Tubarao (72.6 mi/t), Itaguai (52.6 mi/t) and Ilha Guaiba (28.7 mi/t). Petroleum and derivatives (crude oil) also stood out significantly, totaling 167.8 million tons.
The Port of Santos, the largest port complex in Latin America and the main Brazilian port in volume of cargo handled, reaffirmed its strategic role for agribusiness and industry. The complex handled 131.7 million tons in the period. In addition to being the main outlet for the countrys containerized cargo (high added value), Santos was vital for the flow of the harvest, with emphasis on soybeans, whose movement was 38.5 million tons in the region.
Special Social Communication AdvisoryMinistry of Ports and Airports
