CLI terminal in Brazil projects 15% increase in grains, sugar shipments

Logistics company CLI, who operates one of the largest agricultural commodities export terminals in Brazil, projects to ship around 15% more grains and sugar in 2024 due to increased demand from commodities traders and mills.

According to the company’s director of operations, Luis Neves, sugar shipments will likely grow more than 1 million metric tons this year to up to 9.5 million tons, while grains loadings are estimated to increase 1 million tons to 6.5 million tons.

Neves said that the company reported a monthly loading record in February at 1.3 million tons, with sugar making up 900,000 tons of that amount.

CLI is Brazil’s largest sugar export terminal, shipping around a third of the country’s total. It is controlled by Macquarie Asset Management and private equity firm IG4, with rail company Rumo RAIL3.SA holding a 20% stake.

Brazil exported a record amount of sugar in 2023 at around 31 million tons amid a bumper sugarcane crop. Most analysts expect around the same volume being shipped in 2024.

Neves said that basically all of CLI’s loading capacity for 2024 has already been booked by traders, mills and co-ops.

The country has struggled to ship all of its agricultural goods as it increases its share in several export markets, leading the rankings in soybeans, corn, sugar, coffee, cotton, orange juice, poultry, beef and tobacco. Vessels had to wait more than a month in some moments of last year to start loading.

CLI plans to invest 600 million reais ($119.51 million) to expand its terminal in the Santos port, with work expected to start in the first quarter of 2025.

Source: Nasdaq

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