Our Pilot Plant, with a capacity for 1.2 million tons a year, shall be served by the existing logistic infrastructure, composed of:

1. Railway operated by the Transnordestina concession holder (previously CFN), with a current capacity consistent with the production of our Pilot Plant.
   
   
2. Suape Port – PE, which boasts a compatible hull depth for operation of Panamax-type ships, in addition to facilities that satisfactorily provide the outflow.

Railway

Currently, we use a 350km stretch of railway. As a federal concession dependent on this means of transport (either due to the lack of other means or because these means are not economically viable for our operation), we have chosen to exploit and operate this means of transport  under passage payment mode.

However, among the Federal Government’s Acceleration Plan projects is one for the construction of Transnordestina’s new railway stretch. This new stretch is already under construction; it, will be 1,300km long and  connect soy production regions in Piauí and Tocantins  to the Suape port, crossing the plaster production pole in Pernambuco. As such, it will form an alternative logistics route for outflowing our products.

Port

Suape Port, through which we currently perform the outflow of our production, has undergone planned growth over the last 30 years. One of factors responsible for this sustained growth is the fact that it is an organized port linked to a Port Industrial Zone [Zona Industrial Portuária]. It is today a hub port serving seven Brazilian states: Bahia, Sergipe, Alagoas, Pernambuco, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte and Piauí.

Suape is today Brazil's largest civil construction site. Large-sized structuring ventures are currently leading the region’s economic growth and attracting more loads to the region. Since 2007 the following units and plants have settled in Suape: Mossi e Ghessof, Estaleiro Atlântico Sul, Moinhos Bunge, Refinaria e Pólo Petro-Químico, Pátio de Importação, GM Assembly Plant and Transnordestina.

We're investing in this segment in order to satisfy the growing demand for solid bulk loads in Suape. We have recently acquired a mobile port crane. This equipment (Liebherr 500G) has the longest range and largest load capability in operation in South American ports.