Babitonga Bay Port Complex Gains New Anchorage Point

To accommodate the ongoing increase in ship traffic, the Port Authority of São Francisco do Sul has established a new anchorage point in Babitonga Bay. In total, there are nine locations where vessels can wait before heading to the port terminals.

The area is also used as a refuge in case of adverse weather conditions or occasional changes in tide height, which can hinder the navigation of large ships.

The new anchorage point was approved by the Brazilian Navy this week and is located near the entrance to the access channel to Babitonga Bay.

The initiative aimed to restore an existing anchorage point that was impacted by the construction of the Southern Gas Terminal (TGS).

“The anchorage points are also important support elements for docking and undocking maneuvers because, due to the channel’s length (17 kilometers), ships with deeper drafts cannot navigate the entire channel during high tide. Therefore, they must wait for the necessary depth to resume navigation,” explains Guilherme Medeiros, Director of Operations and Logistics at the Port of São Francisco do Sul.

According to him, the expectation of increased port activity in Babitonga Bay is increasing the demand for more anchorage areas.

“Therefore, the Port Authority, together with the other port terminals in the region, the Pilots’ Association, and the Navy, is developing initiatives to explore new anchorage areas, which will be important to absorb the growth in activity,” emphasizes Medeiros, adding that the new location was determined after a study of sea depth through multibeam bathymetry, which collects data in a kind of “scan” of the bay floor.

The following chart shows the top most exported cargo from the Port of São Francisco do Sul in the twelve months of 2023. The data is from DataLiner.

Top Cargo Handled in São Francisco do Sul Port | 2023 | WTMT

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

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