A hub of energy, capital and brainpower
In his second term as the head of Aecipp (Association of Companies of the Pecém Industrial and Port Complex), Eduardo Amaral talks about the synergy among member companies and Ceará’s potential to accelerate a major transformation in the industry.
“We have a great opportunity to decarbonize the industry”, assesses Eduardo Amaral, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Companies of the Pecém Industrial and Port Complex (Aecipp). He has been the president of the organization since 2015. Currently in his second term, Amaral speaks about the association’s leading role in the sustainable development of the Pecém Complex (Cipp) and its supply chain.
Aecipp is a non-for-profit organization focused on strengthening and developing businesses in the region. It currently has 80 member companies, and the number keeps growing on a daily basis.
In the following interview, Eduardo Amaral speaks about a greener future for Ceará, with the generation of energy from its own sources - sunlight and wind. In parallel, he highlights Aecipp’s role on business and capital stability, community development, employability and training, and a strong relationship with the state’s administration to ensure business development.
Ótimo - It is undeniable how Aecipp has been strengthening and developing the Pecém Complex. The number of member companies continues to grow rapidly.
Eduardo Amaral - We are 72 member companies. By the time this article is published, we will be 73 or 74... (At the time of publication, the number of member companies was 80). Society has understood, and businesspeople have understood, that being part of Aecipp is important – it brings prestige, as it will generate an environment for business development.
Ótimo – Speaking of investments, what initiatives are currently underway?
Amaral – An investment of 16 billion reais was announced for the Complex, not including investments in green hydrogen. There is a gas-fired power plant being built at the moment. It will work with (the consortium) Portocem, an Aecipp associated company, as a backup for the energy system, to also guarantee the production of green hydrogen. There are other investments, such as tanking, the regasification terminal, which are already underway. Portocem has started the earthmoving work. This will bring social and economic development to the region, as well as job creation, putting Ceará on the global map of reindustrialization. We believe in it in an activist way. Companies and entrepreneurs have understood their roles in this development. For all this to happen, the industry needs a positive investment environment.
Ótimo - Member companies play a very active role in Aecipp. What are the benefits of joining it?
Amaral - The “Projeto Sinergia” was created with the goal of doing business with each other. We have managers, shareholders and company owners who have a legitimate desire to do business with the companies from the Complex. The project is now a year old. We have legitimacy and sustainable development, because we pay taxes in the region, we optimize the capital invested in the companies, we hire more people in the region and we make the capital invested last, to deliver a wider social benefit. If the municipalities and the state of Ceará collect more taxes in the region, then we can have more sustainability, more development. Something I always like to draw attention to is that we have dozens of member companies, around 100,000 people working for these companies and a huge amount of brainpower.
Ótimo - Making it possible to get to know each other’s demands...
Amaral - Not only the demands. Anyone who runs a large industrial or business venture has learned a lot from setting it up in the Complex. We have two steel mills (Aço Cearense and ArcelorMittal), we have the harbor itself, a lot of energy, capital and brainpower invested. That way, working together synergistically makes perfect sense for the development of the environment.
Ótimo - Does this work also take place through forums?
Amaral - Exactly. We have 10 forums, including Innovation, Human Resources, Suppliers, Work Safety, Health and Logistics. Each forum unites between 30 and 60 people. There are around 600 executives working to improve the business environment, to guarantee reliability and employability.
Ótimo - One of Aecipp’s pillars is to boost employability. The “Programa Aproximar” (getting closer program) links professionals, the private sector, academia...
Amaral - Since one of Aecipp’s main goals is sustainable development, there can be no sustainable development without supporting socially and economically the local communities. With the “Aproximar” project, we want to generate jobs for the surrounding communities. Around 65% of the workforce employed comes from nearby. This project is being developed by four hands and it is a result of the involvement of the entities that work so hard to develop the workforce. Aecipp is involved at both ends, in training and in employing. The member companies work on linking the demand, training people, where they are located, and what the replacement base is. We have Sine IDT (Institute for the Development of Work), the involvement of Caucaia, São Gonçalo do Amarante and Paracuru governments, as well as the towns’ legislative bodies. We involve everyone so that they understand the process. There is also Aecipp, the trade unions and the civil structures that want to get involved. This is an open-door project that aims to discuss employability and how to find work. We have a human resources forum to work on these needs.
Ótimo - In practical terms, what activities are carried out?
Amaral - Member companies’ HR executives participate in the Forums, i.e. those who are doing the employability work, who know the companies needs, what professionals will need to be hired in six months, in a year; they know if there will be a new company coming to the Complex. For example, in the next six months, companies in the Complex are hiring 4,300 people. We see the need, what the vacancies are, we talk to institutions like Sine, Senai, Sesi, IFCE, Centec, we train, often propose a curriculum base and employ 100% of the graduates. The most important thing is that we can foresee the demand.
Ótimo - What is the demand of professionals from outside the region and from other fields?
Amaral - Obviously we prefer to hire people from the nearby region, but many people also come from Fortaleza. Many professionals from here end up going to Fortaleza as well. We look at the surrounding areas, but these are complex industries and companies that need lawyers, doctors, executives, directors, managers, technology professionals, logistics, a whole range of professionals.
Ótimo - Aecipp also has an important relationship with the Academy.
Amaral - Aecipp is located within the IFCE campus (Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Ceará) with the objective of supporting development and training. We are not only inside IFCE, but we work together to design courses according to existing and future needs. IFCE is a key partner of Aecipp in the development of technology. It is a formidable asset, with brainpower provided by a federal technology institute, in synergy with the whole Complex.
Ótimo - Sustainable solutions boost competitiveness. How has Aecipp been working on this front?
Amaral - Sustainability is everything we do to make the environment perennial over time. If you train people, if you do business with each other, if you have a good governance environment, collaboration, transparency and communication, all of this is sustainability. If you have relationships with stakeholders, with the government administration, you are making the environment sustainable and perennial. Sustainability is investing capital and developing it while taking care of the environment and nearby communities. Sustainability is transcendental to society. There is a lot of talk about ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance), but if you don’t take care of the environment, it is not sustainable.
Ótimo - Green hydrogen is at the center of attention in the business environment, in communities and in academia.
Amaral - People talk a lot about the new industry, the global reindustrialization, and Ceará offers great opportunities because it has abundant renewable energy. In terms of wind energy, we have the capacity to supply enough energy to power the entire Brazil. In terms of solar energy capacity, we are able to generate more than three times the required amount to meet Brazil’s entire energy needs. Hydrogen itself is not something new. It is being produced from carbon, mainly from gas, which we call gray hydrogen. The possibility of producing green hydrogen from renewable energy comes as a very important opportunity to decarbonize the industry, of supporting the process of decarbonization and generation of greenhouse gases, of global warming, and the war in Ukraine has greatly advanced this process. Ceará has the ability to produce cheap renewable energy and CIPP has a logistical advantage for this production and a favorable ecosystem for this development.
Ótimo - What are the main challenges to energy transition?
Amaral - Today, the main challenges are technological and logistical. Technological because it is a development. People talk about how to produce a molecule that is competitive with hydrogen produced through carbon, which is gas. Ceará has this matrix, because of the cheap energy, to be able to produce hydrogen on a scale, to lower the cost and to be able to export it. We have all the assets to enable CIPP, with the EPZ (Export Processing Zones), to make this happen. We have a set of factors to promote the development of green hydrogen and put Ceará and Brazil on the map of reindustrialization.
Ótimo - How do you evaluate your first term as the head of Aecipp and what is your governance strategy for this second term?
Amaral - I am one of its founders. I have been on the Board since its foundation in 2015. When I took over in 2021, still in the midst of the pandemic, the most important thing was to think about what we could do to support the surrounding communities. At the time, we donated food baskets bought from local businesses. Secondly, we needed to evolve in terms of governance at Aecipp, which had already been operating for around six years, in order to be able to nurture the business environment. We understood that instead of a polygonal borders, CIPP has a supply chain. The first move was changing our governance to welcome companies that are part of the Complex’s development chain. We support, give a voice to and collaborate with the companies that are part of the supply chain. This was the balance of the first government: we changed governance. In the second term, we have already reaped the rewards of this change. We have managed to attract more companies, more collaboration, more brainpower.
Ótimo - What Aecipp do you hope to see in 2025, when you conclude your term as a president and the association completes a decade since its foundation?
Amaral - We hope that the work continues, that Aecipp remains a good environment for collaboration and a living ecosystem. Many businesses will be included, Aecipp will be much bigger if the environment continues at this pace, in this interaction. Because Aecipp is not an environment of competition, it is an environment of collaboration. And that is what makes it so exciting.
Compartilhe