The port system is a key element for the macroeconomic development of its area of influence. The performance evaluation of the port sector becomes fundamental to the monitoring and improvement of the activities of this sector aiming at accomplishing efficiency. The Data Envelopment Analysis - DEA is a method based on mathematic programming which analyzes, based on the inputs and outputs utilized in a certain process, the efficiency of a set of Decision Making Units - DMU. This paper aims to elaborate and analyze models for the efficiency measuring of the ports in Brazil's northwest in 2006, adopting the DEA method. The variables selection was done with the aid of the Compensatory method of Normalization (Single Parameter), which determines the variables to be utilized through index S that depends on the average efficiency (causal relation) and the quantity of DMU in the frontier (discrimination power). The facilities of containers and solid bulks of the main ports in northwest were analyzed. The obtaining of the port efficiency executed by the type of load helps in the medium and long-term planning, so that it organizes the ports to increase the timetable turnover and the loads turnover, contributing to the efficiency of the terminals.
port planning; data envelopment analysis; performance evaluation