en.Wedoany.com Reported - VLI Railway Logistics Company announced on Thursday (July 2) that, through a strategic partnership, it has attracted global enterprise ETG Fertilizers to establish a factory in Palmeirante, Tocantins, Brazil. This is ETG's first industrial operation in Brazil, with an estimated investment of 26 million reais.

VLI's business park in Palmeirante is located at the intersection of the North-South railway connecting the Matopiba production region and the Itaqui port in Maranhão, focusing on the fertilizer sector. A year ago, Mosaic had already set up a factory there, planning to produce approximately 1 million tons of fertilizer by 2027, with raw materials transported by rail from Itaqui.

ETG Fertilizers' new plant can produce up to 200,000 tons of fertilizer annually and has a storage capacity of 45,000 tons. Carolina Hernandez, Executive Director of Commercial, Projects, and Strategic Planning at VLI, stated that the partnership with ETG strengthens VLI's commitment to driving economic growth sectors such as agriculture, highlighting the role of its northern corridor operations as an engine for regional development. Thiago Briso, Director of ETG Brazil, noted that the group is bringing its market-leading business model from Africa to Brazil and, leveraging the logistics platform provided by VLI, is supporting the sustainable development of agribusiness in the Tocantins and Matopiba regions.

Founded in 1967 and headquartered in Kenya, ETG now operates in 45 countries, with a portfolio including fertilizers, agricultural inputs, commodity trading, food industry, mining, energy, and logistics. The Palmeirante Integrated Terminal (TIPA) is the core of VLI's fertilizer transport logistics corridor, launched in 2022, with a total investment of approximately 400 million reais, jointly with the Itaqui Operating Company (Copi). Since its operation began, the hub has attracted nearly 500 million reais in investments. VLI also handles fuel cargo at the Palmeirante park, while transporting grains to the São Luís port terminal and the berths of Tegram—owned by a consortium of private enterprises including TCN (NovAgri and CHS), Viterra, CLI (IG4 Capital and Macquire Asset Management), and ALZ (a joint venture of Amaggi, Louis Dreyfus, and Zeh-Noh).

Attracting the fertilizer industry helps increase fertilizer supply in the Matopiba states, which is crucial for the return on VLI's investment in the region's railway network. The company noted that railcars that previously returned empty from São Luís to Tocantins to load grains are now filled with fertilizer raw materials, optimizing revenue and reducing carbon dioxide emissions per ton transported.