In global maritime trade, regulatory decisions are not constrained by geography. An antitrust case in Brasília is setting the pace of operations at the Reina Sofía Dock in Las Palmas. Brazil’s antitrust regulator, Cade, has frozen the tender for Tecon Santos 10 (STS10)—a concession worth 6.45 billion reais ($1.25 billion) at Latin America’s largest port—reopening a corporate battle that directly affects container flows across the mid-Atlantic.
The link between the two facilities is a matter of scale and ownership. The Port of Santos handled 12.59 million tonnes in January 2026, backed by 451,980 TEUs and 4.76 million tonnes of containerized cargo. At the opposite end of the ocean, the Port of Las Palmas handled 2.03 million tonnes and 97,120 TEUs during the same period. The financial key for the capital of Gran Canaria lies in a single metric: 59,864 TEUs of its monthly traffic strictly correspond to maritime transshipment. Some 61.6% of the containers calling at the islands do not enter the local market; they are unloaded from an intercontinental vessel and reloaded for transport to West Africa or Europe.
Containerized general cargo accounts for 50.7% of all goods handled in Las Palmas—1.02 million tonnes. Most of this volume is handled by the OPCSA terminal, owned by Terminal Investment Limited (TiL), the port subsidiary of Swiss shipping giant Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC).
The controversy in Brazil threatens this supply chain. Cade’s Superintendence had authorized MSC and Maersk to bid for STS10 following a corporate restructuring commitment in Brasil Terminal Portuário (BTP), which they currently control equally, with a 50% stake each through TiL and APM Terminals. Cade Council President Diogo Thomson de Andrade revoked that fast-track route, sending the case to the agency’s full board. The decision came in response to pressure from the Philippine company ICTSI and nine global operators—including Cosco, PSA, Hapag-Lloyd and ONE—which are demanding a direct ban on the world’s two largest shipping lines to prevent a monopoly at the port of São Paulo state.
January’s figures reveal the scale of the risk for OPCSA. Santos recorded 231,139 TEUs of exports and 220,841 TEUs of imports. If Cade bars MSC from participating in STS10, the shipping line will lose the ability to vertically integrate the capture of that critical volume at its Brazilian origin. Without direct control of the berths in Santos, the carrier’s own cargo density feeding its transatlantic services would be compromised.
For Las Palmas, where the profitability of transshipment depends on 879 monthly calls by merchant vessels, a potential reduction in MSC flows would diminish activity on Gran Canaria. Conversely, awarding STS10 to TiL would lock in captive South America–Europe volume, securing OPCSA’s role as MSC’s logistics hub in the Atlantic. The decision by the panel in Brasília will determine market share in South America and the tonnage that passes under the cranes of Gran Canaria in the coming years.
The article The Port of Las Palmas, Mediterranean Shipping Company and the Mess at the Port of Santos was first published on canarymaritime.com.
