Ships wait up to 30 days to berth at Port of Santos, driving up costs

One of the longstanding bottlenecks in port operations, delays in berthing vessels at the Port of Santos continue to cause losses at different stages of the logistics chain.

Time to berth corresponds to the interval between a vessel’s arrival at the anchorage and its berthing, including transit time through the access channel and any wait for a berth. Total time in port, meanwhile, refers to the period between the vessel’s arrival at the anchorage and its departure from the berth.

José Roque, executive director of the São Paulo State Shipping Agencies Association (Sindamar-SP), explains that container vessels that miss their berthing windows are taking two to three days to berth. Daily costs range from $60,000 to $100,000, depending on the vessel’s length. “Delays in berthing a container ship disrupt its schedule at other ports, affecting the vessel’s entire itinerary,” Roque says.

The longest delays, according to Sindamar’s executive director, affect fertilizer vessels. “They wait 30 days or more at private terminals. At the public quay, the delay reaches three days,” he says.

The Santos Port Authority (APS) explains that this cargo has historically been more affected because fewer berths are available. “Container ships berth more easily because they operate on scheduled liner services,” APS says.

Bulk cargo

Whether transporting dry or liquid bulk, the concern over delays is the same, José Roque notes. “In years with bumper harvests, Santos typically has some of the longest queues of bulk carriers during peak export periods. Demurrage and cargo storage costs at warehouses are the largest expenses.”

José Roque says the Port of Santos is known for its queues in the international dry bulk freight market. “Shipowners and charterers factor that wait into their planning and even into freight negotiations. At the peak of the harvest season, waits of 10 to 20 days or more are not uncommon,” he explains.

Sindamar’s executive director argues that, for liquid bulk cargo, especially chemicals, petroleum products and vegetable oils, the physical availability of a berth is not the only consideration. Operations also depend on the availability of shoreside tanks, product compatibility, pipelines and loading arms, inspections, authorizations, pumping rates and terminal schedules.

“The biggest problem, therefore, is not simply the existence of a queue, but its unpredictability. A three- or four-day wait communicated in advance can be managed commercially. But an estimate that changes repeatedly disrupts the vessel’s entire subsequent schedule,” Roque argues. “As a result, a single operation that runs beyond its scheduled time can have a cascading effect on several vessels.”

Roque estimates waits of 200 hours (8.33 days) at Alemoa and 85 hours (3.54 days) at Ilha Barnabé. “Vessel queues remain a significant problem for liquid bulk terminals. Although the Port of Santos’ overall indicators may suggest low or moderate congestion, the situation is quite different when examined by terminal and cargo type.”

Coffee

Eduardo Heron, technical director of the Brazilian Coffee Exporters Council (Cecafé), adds an important point: coffee exporters need to find temporary storage locations for their cargo (pre-stacking), because once the goods reach Santos, they cannot be sent back inland. That is because the port complex is at least 450 to 500 kilometers from production areas. “When cargo arrives in Santos to meet a deadline and the exporter discovers that the vessel has been delayed, the cargo cannot be placed in the terminal without an additional charge,” he says.

Heron explains that, in 2024, waiting times reached 36 hours. The situation was not much different in 2025, and through February of this year, vessel delays were running at around 20 to 25 hours. The bulk of cargo volumes, particularly containerized cotton, coffee and sugar, arrives in the second half of the year. “That is the concern, because even with lower volumes in the first half, vessel delays remained elevated.”

Longest times recorded in 2023

According to indicators from the National Waterway Transportation Agency (Antaq), over the decade from 2016 to 2025, the longest average times to berth and total times in port at Santos were recorded in 2023: 93.3 and 148.8 hours, respectively.

“During the period analyzed, port cargo throughput rose from 96.9 million metric tons in 2016 to 142.8 million metric tons in 2025. The number of vessel berthings increased from 4,520 to 4,762 over the same period,” Antaq says in a statement.

Among the 15 commodities handled in the largest volumes at Santos in 2025, Antaq says the longest average times to berth were recorded for corn (183.6 hours), soybeans (182.1 hours) and sugar (165.5 hours). Next were residues from soybean oil extraction (154.6 hours), petroleum and petroleum products excluding crude oil (90 hours), and fertilizers (82.2 hours).

According to Antaq, the shortest average time to berth was recorded in 2018, at 58.2 hours.

Wide-ranging and variable data

The Santos Port Authority (APS) did not provide precise information, explaining that “the data are wide-ranging and variable, given that this is a multipurpose port.”

APS added that there is no consistent year-by-year record of waiting times for berthing. “The Port of Santos has been setting successive cargo throughput records, and this is also due to greater efficiency in vessel operations and berthing,” it argues.

APS’s assessment is that vessel berthing is proceeding normally and that there is currently no concerning vessel queue at Santos.

Priority measure

Eduardo Heron, technical director of the Brazilian Coffee Exporters Council (Cecafé), believes the priority measure to reduce the problem at the Port of Santos should be the development of the Santos 10 Container Terminal (Tecon) at the Saboó quay. For now, the site remains caught up in a protracted dispute over the holding of the auction and its terms.

“Our survey found that containerized cargo throughput at the Port of Santos increased by more than 70% from 2013 to 2025, according to the Santos Port Authority’s own data. And cargo volumes are still growing and will continue to grow. There is no doubt that Santos currently lacks the yard and berth capacity to handle them. Tecon Santos 10 is critically important and extremely urgent,” he says.

Heron stresses that Tecon Santos 10 is part of the solution, alongside progress on construction of a third carriageway on the Imigrantes highway, the addition of a new access ramp to the Santos port complex and dredging to allow deeper drafts.

“Unfortunately, these are discussions we should not still be having, but they have dragged on for a long time, even as cargo needs port infrastructure and ocean carriers need sufficient draft for vessels to depart fully loaded,” he says.

Cecafé’s technical director notes that Tecon Santos 10 is expected to reach full capacity around mid-2030 if the auction is held in 2027, as the federal government intends, although there is skepticism about whether that timeline can be met, including from Heron himself.

“Until then, cargo shipments will continue to incur losses,” he concludes.

Source: ATribuna.com.br

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