History - CONCAIS S.A

The Port of Santos was the main gateway to European and Asian immigrants coming to Brazil – mainly in the State of São Paulo -, from the XIX century to the mid-XX century.

Passenger ships brought thousands of foreigners that came in search of better luck in Brazilian grounds. Families came seeking opportunity, brought by vessels that made history. The Port of Santos witnessed phases that have had passenger vessels as milestones along decades and centuries, since the immigration times up to present days.

In the early XX century, quay area of Warehouses 5 and 6 – behind the Customs building – was the main berth for passenger ships. Afterwards, the quay of Warehouses 15 and 16 was used mostly to serve cruise ships, including Warehouse IV External, for Luggage.

After the second half of XX century, along with the expansion of jet flights, especially in the 1960's, ship-liners, which no longer carried immigrants, but rather passengers making leisure trips, started to lose ground to airplanes.

However, the maritime cruise industry did not merely wait for ways out – it acted proactively to find solutions. A new concept of trip was worked out to replace the old 'liners', vessels that used to do regular line trips, such as London-New York. The Cruise liners were made into environments of constant leisure, carrying about attractions for all ages – from children, to teenagers and adults, and also older people.

The first vessel to have passengers serviced by Concais was Costa Marina, at the quay of Warehouse 23, next to the Maritime Passenger Terminal. However, the first cruise ship liner to berth at the quay of Warehouse 25, of Concais, was the Portuguese vessel Funchal, on December 2, 1998.

The moment was economically favorable, once Brazil had facilitated maritime transport of passengers from one port to another in the country, the so-called tourism shipping transport. After the segment was opened, by means of Constitutional Amendment no. 7, dated August 15th, 1995, that point was changed in the applicable law, allowing foreign liners to perform the transport of passengers in our waters. Maritime cruises started to grow, year after year.

Also, in the early 1990's, it was forbidden for foreign flag liner ships to take tourists from one point to another inside the Brazilian territory. Thus, a foreign ship could board Brazilian tourists in a national port, but the itinerary would have to include ports abroad – maritime cruises could not take place between Brazilian ports. Under those conditions, therefore, there were limits for the expansion of the Brazilian maritime tourism.

Concais has always believed in the strength of maritime cruises. A proof is that, since the beginning of the operations, it has invested on the expansion of the facilities of its Maritime Passenger Terminal, in order to offer the necessary conditions to expand this promising market.

From that point on, then, Concais has served tens of ships from traditional shipping companies. Every season, it receives thousands of passengers from all over the country.

Seasonality

Maritime cruise activity in Santos Port is still seasonable. It is currently limited to a continuous 5 to 7-month period. And we do not have liner movement during all the 150 or 210 days. In the Santos case, season has expanded considerably. When Concais started its activities, season would extend to a maximum three straight months, with an average of 50 days of operation.

Yearly occupancy rate of Concais in the past seasons has not gone over 35%.

Passengers and Crew Security and Reception

Concais has facilities available for authorities working in the reception and security of passengers and crew: Codesp, Customs, Federal, Civil, and Military Police, Port Guard, Health (Anvisa), Labor, and Agriculture Ministry, Maritime Agencies, and Ship owners.

Concais has a TV closed circuit system (CFTV) for electronic surveillance and it keeps access control personnel to make sure passengers and everyone involved in tourist-related operations are safe. The terminal counts on 11 metal detector scanners for passengers embarkation and 5 exclusive scanners for luggage embarkation.