Management of Brazilian and BRICS ports: a comparative analysis of their logistical problems and their solution through information technology

Abstract

Brazilian ports have many logistics problems caused by lack of investment and innovation, leading to bottlenecks in the movement of goods. The same occurs at the ports of BRICS member countries. In order to solve the bottlenecks, an option could be the use of information technology (IT), which acts as a facilitator for managing and operating ports. The purpose of this article is to analyze the main problems found at BRICS ports and propose solutions to them through the usage of IT. To do this, a bibliographic search was carried out in the Scopus and SciElo databases, as well as in institutional websites. For berth allocation problems, optimization solutions were more effective; for bottlenecks, simulation, optimization, and RFID technology were used; and for management problems, intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and other IT solutions, such electronic data interchange (EDI), helped in the integration of logistic system actors, minimizing a majority of the problems.