Ports and Terminals

Container handling increases in the Port of Santos while total cargo decreases

Oct, 30, 2019 Posted by Sylvia Schandert

Week 201945

In September 2, the Port of Santos recorded the largest monthly container movement in history, up 9% from September 2018. There were 386,165 TEUs, a result just below the registered number in August 2018 (387,791 TEUs). In the overall total of tons handled, the result fell slightly, by 0.1%, over the same period of 2018, to 11.57m tons.

The September result can mainly be attributed to the contractions in bulk sugar (-34.6%), bulk soybean meal (-39.4%), and bulk soybean (-34.9%) shipments, which was also reflected in the drop in the total volume of shipments (-3.7%). The 38.2% increase in corn shipments contributed to soften the overall result of this cargo flow.

Landings, in turn, registered a 9.3% increase in volume handled. The number was impacted by higher fertilizer (+30.6%) and gasoline and diesel oil (+335.6%) loads.

Accumulated movement

In the first nine months of 2019, cargo handling at the Port of Santos reached the level of 99.98m tons, 0.4% less than in the same period last year (100.40m).

Shipment flow decreased 1.3% in volume, while landings remained high, with a growth of 1.8% in the period compared to the previous year. Soybean (grain and bran) cargoes maintained the largest movement (21.50m tons), although with a decrease in relation to last year (11.3%). Corn, driven by a growth of 61.3%, has the 2nd largest movement (11.10m), surpassing sugar, which recorded a decrease of 11.9% (10.22m).

In the 4th largest movement and leader in landings, fertilizer had a high of 31.4% (3.79m). The following came next: pulp (3.56m tons, growth of 6.4%); diesel oil (landing load, with a 23.6% increase and 1.72m tons); coffee (134% growth, 1.70m); citrus juices (1.58m, down 7.6%), sulfur (landing, 1.27m tons, down 22.3%) and meat (1.18m, up 126.3%).

Container handling, which grew 9% in the month, fell in the year, totaling 3.06m TEUs, 1% less than in the same period of 2018 (3.09m).

The number of ships in the Port of Santos registered 3,616 berths between January and September 2019, a 0.8% decrease compared to the same period of 2018 (3,646 berths). This resulted in a 0.78% increase in average productivity with 28,421 tons per vessel.