EFFECTS OF COVID-19 ON WATERWAY TRANSPORT COST STRUCTURE: A MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS IN AMAZONIA

Abstract

Amazon region has a specific transportation reality in comparison with other Brazilian regions. One of peculiar features in the region is the waterway transport of people and goods, in association with a high level of disperse population far apart and the lack of social and physical infrastructure, which make costs essential factors to sustainability of service. In this work, a multivariate analysis using ABC method and tendency function to activity costs behavior, inherent to the waterway transport cost structure, was carried out, given the pandemic situation. Data were collected in the last years, before and in the current COVID-19 pandemic phase, to be used to assess changes in interdependence between total cost and activity costs;in order to subsidize the strategic planes of sector recovery. The study was undertaken in a case of a long-distance crossing at a company in Belem, Brazil and, on results, revealed effects on waterway transport cost structure, in which the reduction of trips affected in reducing fuel consumption costs, maintenance and operational factors above 50%. However, fixed labor and administrative costs had a greater share in total costs, even with the 10% drop in costs of support activities, on average, considered as fixed costs;not being offset by the drop in revenue due to reduced trips. In fact, the effects were proved, mainly, in primary activities. In addition, the need for partnerships between competing companies was evidenced, mainly, for secondary activities, in which several costs could be shared in infrastructure and labor on land. Moreover, in port and on maintenance, as well as on economies of scale, companies could have in acquiring of resources in greater quantity, as in the case of fuel. © 2021 WIT Press