POROSITY, FLUIDITY AND SELECTIVITY

an approach to the Pecém Industrial and Port Complex (CIPP), Ceará, in light of the political economy of territory

Abstract

The Pecém Industrial and Port Complex (CIPP) has consolidated itself, in the first decades of the 21st century, as the main driver of productive and territorial restructuring in Ceará. It is the result of a technical and normative densification articulated with the hyper-globalized world and has become a strategic configuration capable of defining new forms of economic insertion for the state at both national and international levels. This article analyzes the CIPP simultaneously as a product and as a mechanism of spatial reorganization, resulting from the action of public forces in expanding the fluidity, porosity, and selectivity of the territory. It is based on the understanding that the complex is not limited to a logistics infrastructure but constitutes a technical-productive system arising from the convergence of public policies, normative frameworks, fiscal incentives, and investments in port, industrial, and energy infrastructure. The methodology combined a literature review, documentary research, the collection and processing of statistical data, and fieldwork. The results indicate that the technical and normative densification promoted by governmental actions has increased the connectivity of Ceará’s territory, particularly through the consolidation of the steel industry, the internationalization of port management, and the recent projection of the green hydrogen hub. This process has redefined the geography of the state’s exports, with the centrality of São Gonçalo do Amarante and the predominance of steel in the export basket. However, the international insertion enabled by the CIPP occurs in a concentrated manner and remains dependent on specific markets, reinforcing internal spatial hierarchies and exposing the territory to geopolitical fluctuations and the strategies of transnational capital. Thus, the complex expresses both the potentialities and the contradictions inherent to the contemporary territorialization of the new hyper-industrial and hyper-globalized world.