This article aims to make an efficiency evaluation of Brazilian port authorities in performing their functions, from 2007 to 2009, using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). It is considered as inputs: quantity of employees, operational costs, investments; and as outputs: billing and handled cargo. The used DEA model is output-oriented and uses for its analysis scale efficiency and cross efficiency evaluation. Eight port authorities are considered in three years, resulting in 24 DMUs. This study allows us to evaluate if the Docks Companies operations are being efficient from the operational point of view, as well as to compare the performance between the port authorities, in order to identify which management elements should be turned to the achievement of a satisfactory performance. On a consolidated basis, we could notice that Docks Company CODESP (São Paulo) was the more efficient company in the period, followed by CODOMAR (Maranhão) and CDRJ (Rio de Janeiro).
port authority; docks company; efficiency; ports; DEA