Lisbon, Sept. 22, 2025 (Lusa) - The vice-president of Mota-Engil considers that the investments in Brazil are "the step that was missing" for the company to become a reference in Portuguese-language countries in terms of engineering and construction, following the concession to build the underwater tunnel between Santos and Guarujá.
"Brazil is Mota-Engil's affirmation in critical and large-scale engineering projects; and it's the last step we needed to take to become the great reference company in these countries, in terms of engineering and construction," said Manuel António da Fonseca Vasconcelos da Mota, in an interview with Lusa from Angola.
Asked about the importance of Portuguese-language countries for the group, Manuel Mota said that "they are a priority," recalling that the company began its activity in Angola in 1946.
In Angola, among other projects, it is currently the leader of the consortium that, together with Trafigura and Vecturis, manages and operates the logistics infrastructure of the Lobito Corridor, which links the port of Lobito to mineral-rich regions in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia.
The vice-president of Mota-Engil said that the latest tenders the company has won in Brazil - Petrobras and now the Santos tunnel, the most expensive infrastructure of Lula da Silva's Brazilian government - and the objectives it has for Brazil will allow it to establish itself as a leading company in Portuguese-language countries, emphasising that they are a priority.
Regarding the Brazilian tunnel in Santos, the city where Latin America's largest maritime port is located, Manuel Mota also emphasised that "it is a project of fundamental economic and social importance for Brazil".
On 5 September, Mota-Engil, through its subsidiary Mota-Engil Latam Portugal, S.A., won the auction to award the concession for the underwater tunnel between the cities of Santos and Guarujá, on the coast of São Paulo, Brazil, and the contract should be signed by the end of the year, as Lusa has already reported.
When asked about winning this auction, he mentioned two points of differentiation that weighed in favour of beating the Spanish competitor: "Our presence in the market, dedication and desire for this project, which we have been studying for many years, and our competitiveness in this tender".
The latter, he pointed out, also comes from the experience of the partner, the Chinese CCCC, in this type of work: "No company has more kilometres of submerged tunnel, of the technology that is proposed, worldwide, and that naturally also helped," he said.
This year, Mota-Engil strengthened its commitment to Brazil with the acquisition of a partner's stake in the company ECB - Empresa Construtora Brasil - which became 100% owned by Mota-Engil in the first half of the year, and is now also looking for new projects in other Portuguese-language countries.
In the history of the Portuguese company, and in the Portuguese-language area, after Angola, there were investments in Mozambique, which began in 1991, and in Brazil, in 2009, where it first entered the concessions sector and, as of 2012, the construction sector.
In Cabo Verde, they began their journey in 1995 with the international airport project and in Sao Tome they carried out a hotel project on the island of Príncipe.
They are currently present in Angola, Mozambique and Brazil, where they won the most recent auction.
As reported in a statement to the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (CMVM), the winning concession involves an investment that “will amount to around 8.0 billion reais, equivalent to €1.255 billion, of which up to 5.8 billion reais will come from public contributions divided equally between the government of São Paulo and the federal government, with the rest being the responsibility of the concessionaire company, and will last for 30 years”.
The 1.5 kilometre long tunnel, 870 of which will be submerged in an ocean channel to access Brazil's largest port, will connect the port city of Santos to the tourist city of Guarujá and will have lanes for cars, trucks and buses, as well as a tram and space for pedestrians and cyclists.
The construction will allow cars to reduce to just five minutes a crossing that currently takes an hour along a 43-kilometre road or 18 minutes by ferry.
MAV/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
