DETERMINANTS OF THE PERFORMANCE OF CONTAINER TERMINALS IN BRAZIL

The determinants of port performance in a region are crucial to understand how these companies compete on market share to survive. The purpose of this article is to analyse and identify the main determinants of the performance of container terminals in Brazil in relation to their traffic. Different from previous works, which focus on the efficiency of the ports, this paper contributes by focusing on performance in regard to the competition between ports. Container ports were analysed in Brazil from 2011 to 2016. Tests were performed by using linear regression with panel data. Evidence indicates that from the five main variables, three are related to the internal infrastructure, one related to external infrastructure and one related to the institutional aspect. The results found in this research can help answer the question about why there was a drastic cargo migration between the main container ports in Brazil.