Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) (Brazil’s national steel company), the owners of Tecon Sepetiba container terminal in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has received 10 non-binding  proposals from different companies interested in its acquisition.

The purchase price range varies from US$300 million to US$380 million, according to a former container terminal executive.

At this moment Advent International is considered favorite to win the bid, but there are other companies interested in the acquisition: PSA International, Brazilian operator Wilson, Sons (which already has box terminals in Salvador and in Rio Grande), LOGZ (which has shares in both Porto Itapoa and Terminal Portuaria Santa Catarina), plus the Chilean company SudAmericana Agencia Aereas e Maritmos (SAAM), Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and Hutchison Port Holdings.

CSN is evaluating the 10 non-binding offers and will select the best three before the end of the first quarter of this year and will then ask those companies to make final offers.

Sepetiba Tecon has a deep draft of 14.5 meters alongside and a channel with 17.5 meters. Sepetiba Tecon covers an area of 400.000 square meters. Moreover, has a lot of potential as an East Coast of South America hub port.

​Sepetiba Tecon handled just under 275,000 TEU in 2015 (up from the 210,000 TEU handled in 2014) and Its record cargo handling year was in 2011 when it handled 321,000 TEU.

Sepetiba Tecon is located just 70 kilometers from Rio de Janeiro downtown, and also has a railroad link to the MRS Logistica (Brazil rail network), that includes Belo Horizonte and Sao Paulo as well as Rio de Janeiro.

CSN has been trying to find companies to buy shares in Sepetiba Tecon for around two years and then for the past six months started to look for a buyer for the whole terminal.

Advent International, a private equity fund headquartered out of Boston, has been involved in Brazil since 1997. It bought a controlling share of Terminal de Conteineres do Paranagua, in the state of Parana, in July 2011 and the box facility has become the second biggest container terminal in Brazil, with around 890,000 TEU handled in 2015.