Port of Santos scores 2nd-best cargo throughput for February: 10.9 mt

Brazil’s Port of Santos had a 10.9 million tonnes cargo throughput in February 2023, the second-best result for the period ever recorded at the port complex. This performance was 14.8% lower than from February last year, 12.8 million tonnes (historical record), mainly due to a drop in the exported volume of soybeans (-10.6%); and sugar (-24.3%).

The reduction in soybean shipments was influenced by a delay in harvesting, notwithstanding the record production estimated by the National Supply Company (Conab) at 151.4 million tonnes for 2022/2023, as reported by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Mapa), on March 14.

According to the Ministry, sugar sales decreased due to lower crop yields destined for export and lower sugarcane crushing as a consequence of climate issues. Despite this, the total sugar movement at the port increased by 2.0% to 2.1 million tonnes in the first two months of the year. Similarly, despite a drop in February, corn shipments grew by 22.2% in the first two months of 2023, reaching 1.5 million tonnes.

See below the track record of sugar (hs 1701) exports shipped from the Port of Santos between Jan 2019 and Jan 2023. The data is from DataLiner.

Sugar exports from the Port of Santos | Jan 2019 – Jan 2023 | WTMT

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

Lower export volumes and decreasing international prices also affected beef shipment, which totaled 105.3 kt (-23.3%). This tendency is in line with the Port of Santos’ container throughput, which presented a reduction of 13.3%, totaling 324.6 thousand twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). As explained by Mapa, one of the reasons behind the decrease in exports was the self-imposed sanction on beef shipments following the identification of an atypical case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (mad cow disease) on February 22.

According to the country’s Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea), the drop in the exported quantity of various products in February cannot be considered a trend due to the aforementioned situational factors.

The drop in import cargo landings can be attributed primarily to the performance of the fertilizer sector, which shrank by 28.7%.

Shipments totaled 7.9 million tonnes in February, 13.3% less than the same period last year. Landings also fell by 18.8%, totaling 3.0 million tons.

The total cargo movement in the first two months of the year reached 21.1 million tonnes (-10.3%), with shipments accounting for 14.7 million tonnes (-9.2%) and import landing for 6.4 million tonnes (-12.5%). Containerized cargo reached a mark of 77.5 thousand TEU (-10.7%).

The flow of ships increased by 0.4% YTD (791 vessels).

Trade flow

The participation of the Port of Santos in the Brazilian trade flow was 27.3% in February. Considering all commercial transactions that involved the Port of Santos and foreign destinations, China had the largest share, with 26.7%. The State of São Paulo remains the unit of the federation with the greatest stake in commercial transactions with foreign countries, 57.6%.

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