Giant Brazil-Peru Biocean Rail (broad gauge) is 39% at works
Note: This very short article (03 pages) does not have a summary because it is very detailed and it requires reading in full. Thanks.
The future FIOL West-East Transoceanic Railway (correct name) departing from off-shore island deep PORT of ILHÉUS/Aritaguá-Porto Sul - BA State; BRAZIL; along with the future FICO Central-West Integration Railway until MT state Brazil, all only in broad gauge (already a global minerals-maritime requirement for future competitiveness) added to achieve the deep Port of Bayovar in north Peru (the only port that Brazil is interested in accessing in Peru because only it will to through and to develop many poor and almost abandoned areas of our distant and poor AC state) is the true and only if by this future Transoceanic Railway comes from Brazil, all in accordance with the following serious, real competitive items (not Fake News nor heavily paid reports/articles - poorly based/not at all investigative - in part of the Brazilian media, perhaps increasingly sold out and also somewhat unreliable), which prove this, namely:
A) Existence, or not, of an additional port berth for heavy minerals, since in the Project for the Port of Ilhéus/FIOL there will be an artificial island “off-shore” and with a 1,9 km bridge access (in the Port of Açu -RJ, such bridge reaches 2,9 km) and for giant mineral ships, both by to disembark much more volumes of cheaper external supplies, due to lower freight costs, or/also to embark a lot of more Brazil fast minerals/brains/foods/bio energies big medium/big ships as “Suezmax” for 150 thousand t. to smaller “Capesizes” for 200 thousand t. Here I inform, without a doubt and seriously as always, that some global diagnoses - serious and by renowned external consultants/professors - prove that large railways and large ports are only viable when they transport items in constant and large volumes and even with low added value (that is, with gigantic offers even daily and/or guaranteed for long ), even if they are cheaper and with maritime transport, naturally, much slower and cheaper (such as minerals, forestry products, biofuels etc.) and/or with high added value industrial/Agr. industrial/food/bioenergy/vehicles/LNG-LPG/oil, as long as they are neighbors within 2,000 km (otherwise it becomes very expensive and uncompetitive, having better to process/add value they regionally) of such ports and always by broad gauges railways; Thus, transporting only engers, grains and construction materials, unfortunately, never makes such railways and ports viable;
B) Good draft (maximum depth) of such Port at high tide with up to 20.0 meters deep and almost without the need for future, constant and expensive dredging (a common situation in most current Brazilian ports), because the Ilhéus Port it is located on an very safe “off-shore” island in the high seas;
C) Expected length of such Port of at least a good 2,180 m in its already programmed 10 berths/islands of different sizes/purposes in the area of ??greatest mineral payload + dry/refrigerated cargo/containers, as foreseen in the “offshore” island anchored in the high seas (the more useful area available, the greater its competitiveness, as it can receive many more ships of different types and sizes), idem areas for cargo to be loaded immediately and also for modern port equipment (MHC = Mobile Craner, simple cranes, conveyors, PSU “pneumatic ship unloader” suckers; etc.);
D) Maximum distance (only for comparison) estimated at 10,470 km to the END of the Suez Canal at the tip of Turkey (public estimates added via the Google Earth). Thus, Brazilian ships would go up (exporting)/down (importing) quite a bit in the Atlantic Ocean and enter the Mediterranean Sea to the right and from there they would go down to the new Suez Canal. On another possible route for our Ilhéus very deep Port is to access very fast railways to near of all central, eastern and northern Asia (which the Chinese also want to access to process and sell much more there) all by the Chinese fast and safes railway of the new Silk Road, especially in the semi-deep Port of Iskenderun in Turkey. From the Ilhéus Brazil deep port to the Iskenderun Turkey semi deep port it would be ONLY about 10,720 km, which indicates that it is much better to use this future route – already with a great future option of delivering/receiving on the future fast railway of Turkey and to the entire Asia (not just only to China) and not more to go through the cape of Good Hope in southern Africa this very distant and with access much further and only to west and northeast of China and not to the entire interior of Asia and also for to very rich/ large demanders mediterranean and Arab countries. In recent years, cleverly, China has been rapidly setting up its many large processing/exporting factories in countries such as Djibouti, Tanzania, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Myanmar, all at the end of the Suez Canal). Also from Ilhéus/Porto Sul BA to the super container port of Shenzhen in East/Central China, via the Suez Canal, it is about 19,600 km, which indicates that it may also be much better to use this future route in large ships for about 18 thousand containers, exporting/importing from the southeast/northeast/north (and not via the giant “capesizes” of the Valemax or Chinamax types with up to 350 thousand tons of minerals and which the large Brazilian mining companies will hardly abandon, even if it takes up to 90 days to reach the mineral port of Qingdao in China);
E) Total RAIL rail - only by broad gauge - distance of 4,900 km from our Ilhéus Port, as the tip and strategic/fundamental part of the future Transoceanic Railway (national or Chinese),because going from the Port of Ilhéus, crossing the entire country in an ascending East-West direction until reaching the deep port of Bayovar in northern Peru already existing and/or all our FIOL + FICO railway – including the Ilhéus Port at the beginning/end of the line - planned to and already raising serious resources to implement all they until 2035-2040. Such broad gauge, according to the criteria - strategic and even already fundamentally required internationally in the modern rail-sea concepts in force and even more so in the future - is the one required to compete much better, much faster and safer in order to compete much better globally. In the sum of the future and complete FIOL + FICO railways, that is, from Ilhéus/Aritaguá Port – in BA maritime, mineral, grains, food, biofuels state to Lucas do Rio Verde – in MT center-interior/grain/foods/biofuel state - the current largest grain producing municipality in the country and the end of FICO, in the north-central part of MT - there will be 1,900 km. Afterwards, it will restart as the new Transoceanic Railway, all in broad gauge and with a total of 4,900 km, and will reach in the future the already existing Port of Bayovar - Peru, a short port, but with a depth of 22.9 m (75 feet) for giant ships in the oil and mineral terminal and way up there in Peru (belonging to the Brazilian company VALE mining company) crossing 05 fantastic States; BA, GO, MT, RO, AC (another option would be to reach the new port of Chancay - Peru, but a little shallow at 18.0 m to 20.0 m and for smaller post-panamax ships/some capsizes, but about 500 km further from China than Bayovar port and 300 km closer to Brazil, since it is right in the center, near Lima, and belongs to the Chinese mega shipping company Cosco, although Chancay is much worse for Brazil, since it barely to es through or to develops the poor northwest and northern interior of Acre state (in this giant project we cannot see only the interests of Peru and/or the Chinese and forget, once again, our own).
The best thing is that this future Transoceanic Railway – which I analyze well in my 2004 old book with 750 pages on future world logistics – is highly strategic and very, very favorable to the interior of Brazil. In fact, the best thing is that of the total planned length of 4,900 km from Ilhéus Brazil to Bayovar Peru, it will already be about 39.0% ready or in progress completion by 2030 (1,900 km is in works), being under rapid construction by VALE Miner in the FICO from Mara Rosa - GO state to Lucas Rio Verde/Agua Boa – MT state, but slow by INFRA Governmental Company more BAMIN company (current owner of all FIOL) and to complete all 03 sections of the FIOL from Ilhéus - BA to Mara Rosa - GO (all this will occur perhaps quite the opposite of the current terrible planned/sold/very lobbied routes of the so-called bioceanic Railway - only 04 propose in narrow gauge and 0% implemented - all these planned from the Port of Açu/Campos – RJ state Brazil to Peru (not for Bayovar) and/or the future only planed port of Presidente Kennedy - ES state or even from current deep mineral Tubarão Port - ES and even from current very shallow port of Santos – SP state (this one also has very difficult and expensive road access) and worse all are planned, erroneously, to access only the Chancay Port (Peru) and by these 04 ports above (except Santos, but this one only by its broad gauge to Rondonópolis City – MT state). So, in the 3 ports above there are not even initial and/or planned fast railways already in the mandatory, world maritime-railway, broad gauge, as in FIOL and FICO above. Thus, of our entire real future Transoceanic Railway planned from our future Ilhéus Port to the current Port of Bayovar (the only route that really interests us), there would still be about 61.0% to be built (not 100.0% as in the 03 above) and in very flat and cheap areas in Brazil - but with some expensive final tunnels under the Peruvian Andes (ing through Pucalpa city achieving Peru and very close to the Cruzeiro do Sul/Porto Walter-Desfiladeiro da Esperança = “hope canyon” in northwest of AC state Brazil) and still with about 3,000 km of the total, possibly, to be built/funded by Brazilian Companies/Government (via the BRICs Bank) and/or by Chinese construction companies, such as the "Communications Construction Company - CCCC" (whose railway engineers were now in April/2025 at Ilhéus/FIOL/BAMIN Port for researching and showing interest in the entire complete project) plus by its Chinese and even Arab investors;
F) Wide and good proximity from our future Ilhéus Port in km, comparable and by any type of transport (to be fair with the old ports of the Southeast and South), i.e., from such Port of Ilhéus to the main deposits of various/many and several neighbors minerals mines and in large and heavy volumes and, also, from large offers/demands of industrial, agro-industrial, food, forestry items, etc., as long as they are located within a radius of up to 2,000 km from the Ilhéus Port, otherwise it becomes very expensive and even unfeasible in any type of transport. Up only to 1,300 km from Ilhéus Port (center and north of BA state, northeast and north of closer MG state and southwest of neighbor TO state, next to or very close to the FIOL tracks, already installed for 730 km to the Port, there are already 27 mines of 09 different types of some and several minerals to well explore (as iron/manganese/barite/gold/asbestos/topaz/amethyst/chalcedony/lithium plus a large reserve of atomic uranium, etc.);
G) Wide and much closer proximity future Ilhéus Port in km, comparable, and by any type of transport (to be fair with the old ports of the Southeast and South). So, the Port of Ilhéus also is very closer from the main producing areas of grains, food, biofuels, whether in bulk or in containers, all from railway terminals and/or dry ports (if possible, already customs-cleared) on its collection route, as long as they are located within a radius of up to 2,000 km from the Port, otherwise it becomes very expensive and even unfeasible in any type of transport. So in general, it can be much more recommended to process and sell everything all only regionally, even if at slightly lower prices but without total shipping costs);
H) Good proximity in km from Port of Ilhéus, comparable, and by any type of transport (to be fair with the old ports of the Southeast and South) to the main Industrial areas and/or simple aggregators of value of exportable/importable items only via containers, as long as they are located within a radius of up to 2,000 km to the nearest port as well to described above;
CONCLUSION:
In fact, in this serious post-Trump moment in the world (in which China is already looking for real/reliable and fast solutions and/or partnerships to supply itself and invest well), all this railway-port hullabaloo in Brazil (plus its current large lobbies in the Southeast and South Regions/bad entrepreneurs/speculates investors/old, shallows ports still in narrow gauge - against only the Northeast/Central-West/North - only demonstrates, once again, that the Companies and investors in the Southeast/South) are perhaps desperate and very concerned about the much greater competitiveness of these Ports and their very fast and only broad gauge railways in the Northeast, Central-West and North of the Country (broad gauge are already a worldwide railway-maritime high competitive obligation, but very rare and even hardly feasible in the South and Southeast rail tracks and their ports too).
All companies and entrepreneurs more governments know that is almost economically impossible to rebuild/renovate and to transform the current and old, very slow and expensive very slow, dangerous and expensive to maintain narrow gauge railways - located in or near from the our semi-deep or shallow ports of the Southeast/South regions (small to medium draft, except for a few minerals) - into moderns, safes broad gauge railways, compared to the deep and well-located new ports of the Northeast and North regions. These new or future Brazilian ports - more its broad-gauge railways - are much closer to the Suez Canal and, likewise, also to the Chinese railways, very fast and only in broad gauge, which are easily accessible by new, very fast and modern railways located in the semi-deep ports in Turkey and for deliveries/receptions to all of Asia, not just to China. In fact, more Chinese plans want same fast solutions/investments/business because already does some Chinese factories are being installed in Djibouti, Tanzania, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Myanmar, all at the end of the Suez Canal. All this happens because such Turkish railways and they ports are already part of the new Chinese Silk Road under construction since 2013 and already finalizing (to connect China with Europe on the left, via a tunnel to Italy, and on the right, via Russia and others).
Thus, for the South and Southeast of Brazil to build such a new stubborn bioceanic railways from the 04 ports above, everything would be much more expensive, much slower and with many dubious future results (in the current world, commercially, there is no longer any way to compete by exporting/importing in small and medium-sized ships only for up to 100 thousand tons, even if only containerized). Also, the nautical/railway engineers of the China "Communications Construction Company - CCCC" builder/investors and other foreign investors have already realized visiting for a few days this future port of Ilhéus plus some parts of its FIOL rail. Y think that is no good trying to fool them with lobbies and/or news paid reports, because it will even make things much worse, because they are very intelligent, very well trained and much more nationalistic than we are.
END
Brasília Capital (DF) and Porto Seguro City (BA) on May 7, 2025
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