Carriers complain of congested Mucuripe Port

The owner of one of the major road cargo transport companies operating at the Port of Fortaleza informed a group of 17 agribusiness entrepreneurs he met this week that his trucks have been facing up to a 30-hour wait to access the terminal. The same source recalled that five months ago, he had expressed satisfaction with the services provided by the concessionaire of the Mucuripe Container Terminal, which is the French company CGA Terminals. But now, the situation has changed:

“The scenario is one of loss for operators, especially for exporting companies and road transport ones,” said the businessman, blaming not the management of the Port Authority but CGA Terminals, which operates some of the world’s largest ports.

CGA Terminals won the bid earlier this year, promoted by the former management of the Ceará Port Authority, to operate the Mucuripe Container Terminal, leading to changes in the port’s routines and the operating costs for its users.

While the operators quickly absorbed the costs, the poor quality of service has resulted in constant complaints, the latest being another delay in the entry and exit of trucks carrying containers to and from the Mucuripe Port.

Less than a month ago, due to increased melon exports, there was a substantial increase in the number of trucks arriving at the port carrying refrigerated containers full of this fruit destined for the European market. This caused unprecedented congestion at the port terminal.

The chart below shows containerized fruit exports (hs 0800-08012) from the Port of Mucuripe between Jan 2019 and Sep 2023. The data is from DataLiner.

Fruit Exports from Mucuripe | Jan 2019 – Sep 2023 | TEU

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

In the first congestion event, the Ceará Port Authority issued a statement acknowledging the problem but argued that it was due to this year’s bumper melon crop.

Now, the same problem repeats itself, and the reason is the same: the record melon harvest, which will extend until February 2024. CGA Terminals, which operated in the port of Natal, moved to Mucuripe, where it transferred the loading and unloading operations it used to handle at the Natal terminal.

A one-day delay in loading a fruit container costs the exporter $850. Only one Ceará-based fruit-producing and exporting company ships 200 containers to European ports every week. One can imagine the damage caused by delays in container entry at the Mucuripe Port.

By Egídio Serpa for Diário do Nordeste.

Click here to read the original text: https://diariodonordeste.verdesmares.com.br/opiniao/colunistas/egidio-serpa/porto-do-mucuripe-esta-de-novo-congestionado-diz-transportador-1.3443644

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