Empresa de Tráfego e Estiva, S.A. is licensed as a port operator in
the Portuguese ports of Lisbon, Setúbal, Sines and Faro.
Founded in April 1936, it has developed its core business
activity in offshore handling of maritime cargo.
It is equipped with floating equipment, cranes, tugboats and
barges. In addition to handling some 3mt (million tonnes) a year
of cargo, namely dry bulk, minerals and food stuffs, it has also
actively participated in specialized port works in various national
ports.
With the government’s policy of conceding port areas, E.T.E.
began operating its Terminal Multiusos do Poço do Bispo (TMPB)
in 2001. It has a flat ground of 25,000m2, 10,000m2 of
warehouses, and a 420m-long dockable quay.
Boasting specialized human resources and modern high capacity
lifting resources, TMPB’s core business is port handling
and warehousing of special cargo, namely steel products, unitized
lead cargo, cement and forestry products, general diverse cargo,
bulk food stuffs, aggregate and fertilizers, containers and vehicles.
Lately sugar in bulk, big bags or palletized has been a major
commodity handled by the terminal.
The exceptional conditions of the TMPB Terminal with the
characteristics of a type A customs warehouse, together with
the capabilities of the floating fleet, have allowed the
development of integrated transport logistics in terms of fluvial maritime,
maritime-rail and road, guaranteeing the highest levels
of productivity.
E.T.E. Group was created in specialized as a port operator in
the offshore loading and unloading of dry bulk.
Its way of operating constituted at the time an innovative
solution for speeding up unloading operations at Portuguese
ports, which, due to their congestion and consequent high usage
price, resulted in high costs and delay times for shipping
companies.
The same innovative spirit and constant search for new
solutions to improve business conditions continues to be
present today within the group and it is currently a model
company in the maritime and port sectors and related activities
in Portugal and the major Portuguese-Speaking African countries,
having broadened its scope of activity far beyond these areas to
others such as ship repair, insurance and logistic and shipping
services.
E.T.E. Group’s main objective is to be recognized as a group
that focuses on increasing productivity and services to client. As
such, its mission is to improve the productivity of the
organizations it serves and its main goal is to keep improving
and strengthening the companies it is associated with.
Port operations in Portugal have changed greatly in the last
decade as a result of port concessions and privatizations, market
and economy challenges and a new attitude towards costumers
and other stakeholders.
E.T.E. Group, through its companies directly related to port
operations, stevedoring, river barges, agency and forwarding
services, road transportation and shipping lines, has played an
important role in the major changes and transformations of the
Portuguese port and transportation network.
Throughout the decade, and participating greatly in the
Portuguese ports concession policy, the group
integrated its activities into an organization with a role
in every port in the country, linking its core business of
stevedoring with the complete supply chain
required by the present highly competitive market.
BULK OPERATIONSA long-established bulk operator, E.T.E. Group
manages Portsines, in Sines, the Portuguese main coal
port handling over 5mt (million tonnes) per year. It
does so using direct conveyor belts and a railway delivering coal
to the costumers’ power plants. It also operates at the bulk
terminal (clinker and petcoke) in Setubal as well as at the
multipurpose terminal — Tersado.
The important port of Leixões serving the Oporto and the
northern areas of Portugal and Spain is also operated by E.T.E.
Group on TCGL (breakbulk and bulk terminals) handling over
3mt of imports and exports.
In Aveiro the company operates mainly grain, cement, wood
products and general cargo in a small port environment, which
has seen important developments over the last years.
In the port of Lisbon, the country’s central port, the group
manages three different port concessions owning and operating
a 45,000-tonne fleet of river barges, floating cranes and tug
boats, with a strategic share of bulk operations network handling
over 4mt.
FROM COAL TO BAGGED SUGARE.T.E. Group offers extensive cargo handling services, from
stockpiling coal, to shipping bagged sugar. The different
companies within the group offer services to the market and its
customers, whether Portuguese or international, including: road
haulage; railways services; customs clearance; shipping agency;
warehousing; storage; and stevedoring services.
Throughout its newly reshaped E.T.E. Logistics subsidiary,
based on container operations, several different logistic services
have been developed. These are not only strongly operational in
the Azores, Madeira and Cape Verde markets, but also in Europe,
Asia and Africa. Services also cover breakbulk and project cargo.
The group’s shipping business has been greatly strengthened
by the synergy between its port operations, terminals and
equipment, together with the correlated services of agency and
logistics.
Two well- and long-established shipping companies, operating
a fleet of container and specialized vessels, combined with a long
time bulk freight experience, complement the overall activities of
the E.T.E. Group, the largest Portuguese operator.
SERVICE PROVIDER AND DELIVERERIn an ever- and fast-changing environment such as today’s
shipping industry, new approaches are essential for companies
which must understand costumers’ needs, aims and the overall
supply chains. Offering combined services has enabled more,
and deeper, business relationships with some of the larger
importers and exporters using Portuguese ports.
The combination of port, barges, warehousing or storage, road
and rail, becomeintegral to the provision and delivery of services
and an important part of E.T.E.’s policy and business development.
For this, new equipment has been purchased and the, network of
inlandwarehouses and sites has been rearranged in order to meet
the most efficient marketdemands.
Portuguese ports and back-up warehousing systems have
been under great pressure and E.T.E. is playing a major role in
their development and upgrade, through its bigger commitment
and investment in areas that complement its core business of
shipping and port operations.
INVESTING IN NEW EQUIPMENT AND SPECIALIZATIONSpecialization can help significantly in the delivery of high-quality
services. Therefore, E.T.E. regrouped its operations in Portugal in
terms of bulk handling, breakbulk, containers and logistics. In the
different ports where the group is an important player, port
equipment has been replaced, increasing operating rates and
efficiency. The recent investments in new cranes, conveyor belts
or rolling equipment are the result of a new commercial policy
aligned with customers’ needs.
A strong will on quality issues, and an ambitious certification
scheme programme, is part of the group strategy to improve its
service. E.T.E. stevedoring companies are solely certified GTP
(Good Trading Practices on Grain Supply Chain) by COCERAL, a
European organization covering the demanding feed and grain
trade industry. ISO 9001:2008, 14001:2004 and OHSAS18001
have also been contemplated, as well as other shipping industry
requirements such as ISPS and ISM. The group, through its
quality and certification division, is able to develop and
implement all the quality and security manuals in all its
companies as well as for the other companies of the market.
Ship owning has long been a tradition in the E.T.E. Group, as
it has been focused on niche markets such as Madeira, Azores,
Canary and Cape Verde and Guinea. Specialized bulk vessels
such as cement are also an important part of the group’s
shipping operations.
In the Port of Lisbon a bulk barge fleet with 45,000 tonnes of
capacity is an important part of the bulk operations, mainly
sugar, grain and cement products. There E.T.E. also offers other
important port support services, namely heavy lift floating cranes
and support to construction and repairs of terminal equipment.
FACING THE FUTUREE.T.E. Group has consolidated its operations, shipping,
stevedoring, logistics and specialized support services, working
and serving all Portuguese ports, mainland or islands. The group
is looking forward to new developments within Portuguese
ports and to the renewal of the logistics supply chain resulting
from the planned new transportation infrastructures
construction, railway, bridges and dry ports.