Brazil’s 6th Public Finance Court has upheld an injunction to suspend the expansion of the container terminal at the Port of Salvador, in the state of Bahia
The judge, Ruy Eduardo Almeida Britto, ruled that the lack of authorisation from the Municipal Environmental Council (Coman) meant that the work lacked continuity, so ordered that the license granted by the City of Salvador be suspended.
Although Coman is mostly advisory in nature, in cases involving the concession of authorisations of works that have environmental impact its rulings are key. Indeed, in this case, the majority of its council agreed that the expansion of the Port of Salvador would cause great damage to the environment of the city, because it does not comply with the Municipal Plan of Coastal Management.
The judge stressed that he believed the financial argument for the expansion should be viewed as secondary to that of the environmental impact on the city.
Tecon Salvador is operated by Wilson, Sons and handled 323,000 TEU last year, a year-on-year increase of 5.2%.
The expansion project would have involved investment of US$193M.
Following the ruling, it is incumbent on the city to suspend the license and ensure that all work is stopped immediately. Failure to do so would incur a daily fine of US$1,200 for the container terminal.