Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Utilities Policy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jup Efficiency and productivity of container terminals in Brazilian ports (2008–2017) Beatriz López-Bermúdez ∗ , María Jesús Freire-Seoane, Fernando González-Laxe University of A Coruña, Spain ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Efficiency Productivity Brazil ABSTRACT After the economic recession in which Brazil was immersed during the years 2015 and 2016, signs of recovery are perceived through port activity. The objective of this research is to analyze the efficiency and productivity of 20 container terminals in Brazilian ports for the 2008 to 2017 period. The methodology used is stochastic frontier analysis and operational port indicators including variables such as the frequency of calls. The most significant findings obtained from the efficiency analysis reveal that private terminal operators are more effi- cient. The average technical efficiency level was 0.66 in 2008 and in the last year 0.51. 1. Introduction In recent years, proposals have been presented to reactivate global growth, the most significant of which were put forward by the International Monetary Fund (FMI, 2018) referring to trade, pro- ductivity, inclusive growth policies, gender equality, and debt man- agement. In 2016, the Latin American continent has experienced a general recession due mainly to the performance of very important economies in the region, including Brazil, which between 2015 and 2016 experi- enced a fall in Gross Domestic Product of 3.6%. A report by Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC, 2018) in- dicates a growth in the country's Gross Domestic Product (henceforth GDP) in 2017. According to the FMI (2018), growth prospects for 2018 are estimated at around 1.5%. While consumption and investment re- main at very low levels, exports reach significant levels that favor re- covery and reflect a surplus in the balance of goods and services, gen- erating a reduction in the current account deficit. UNCTAD estimates (2017) show that 80% of world trade is trans- ported by sea. Researchers (Stopford, 2002; Rodrigue et al., 2016; López-Bermúdez et al., 2018) point out that investments in port infra- structures have a direct impact on national economies. Maritime transport, and containerized merchandise in particular (cargo) presents the greatest added value in terms of commercial exchange and is a faithful economic indicator. Foreign trade is very important for Brazil; in 2014, foreign trade represented 19.34% of the Gross National Pro- duct (Tadeu and Nobre, 2015). Bottasso et al. (2018) confirm the link between international trade and GDP for the period 2009–2012 in Brazil, revealing that maritime infrastructure investment realized over the period generated an increase of about 14% for export and 11% for import flows. Brazil's growth before the world economic crisis put severe stress on the transport system, with a registered increase in inefficiency (Barros et al., 2015) and critical conditions in the main transport infrastructure. Since seaports are the main gateway to foreign markets, maritime-re- lated infrastructure is of particular importance supporting the growth process (Bottasso et al., 2018). The objective of this research is to analyze the efficiency and pro- ductivity of 20 terminals of containerized goods in Brazil between 2008 and 2017. During this period, there have been changes in the legislation of the port sector seeking to favor an increase in private capital in- vestments in the country. In addition, in terms of containerized goods trade, these terminals have gone from moving 7 million TEUs (Twenty- foot Equivalent Units) in 2008 to 9.2 million in 2015 and 8.8 million in 2016; ECLAC estimates that 9.8 million would be reached in 2017. This article is structured as follow: Section 2 summarizes the background on studies of port efficiency and productivity; Section 3 presents an analysis of the concepts of efficiency and productivity; Section 4 develops the applied methodology; Section 5 provides an analysis of the results; Section 6 collects the discussion about the re- sults; and finally, the last two sections contain the conclusions and bibliography. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2018.11.006 Received 10 September 2018; Received in revised form 26 November 2018; Accepted 26 November 2018 ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: beatriz.lopez2@udc.es, beatrizlopezbermudez@gmail.com (B. López-Bermúdez), maje@udc.es (M.J. Freire-Seoane), laxe@udc.es (F. González-Laxe). Utilities Policy 56 (2019) 82–91 0957-1787/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T