Data shows vessel calls at Brazilian ports remain unimpacted until March, although reductions expected in April

Is the pandemic caused by the coronavirus already impacting world trade? In what way? To answer these questions, Datamar carried out a study on the port calls at Brazilian ports.  A monthly analysis with the corresponding month in 2019, shows that the number of container vessel calls so far remains stable.  However, shipping lines indicate that there is a definite downward trend, as blank sailings are expected to rise.

Source: Datamar

The Alliance, formed by shipowners Hapag-Lloyd, HMM, Ocean Network Express and Yang Ming for example, has already announced that it will modify its shipping itinerary in April, with several trips canceled around the world.

According to LATD (Department of Commerce of Latin America) / Shanghai of Cosco, affected by the virus, the company is forecasting a downward volume in the entire market and will decrease its capacity by carrying out more blank sailings to stabilize the market. “We plan to make three blank sailings until April and May on our ESA2 line,” says the company.

In addition, as fewer TEUs are being handled, some shipowners are considering reducing the number of calls, unloading all the country’s cargo in a single port and from there sending it to the other ports by transshipment.

According to the shipowners, there is a fall in imports of manufactured goods from China, caused by several factors such as the rise of the dollar, and a lack of Chinese production whilst factories shut down in an attempt to contain the coronavirus. This lack of imports, which is the ‘dominant leg’ of the journey between Brazil and China, is causing shipowners to wait another week until the ships leaving China for Brazil are fully supplied, reducing their fixed costs, and resulting in blank sailings.

On the other hand, shipping lines report exports, mainly to China, are still on the rise, since the Asian country is looking to restock now that the worst of the coronavirus pandemic seems to be over. As for services to the Americas, not much change has been detected.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday April 8, the World Trade Organization (WTO) announced that it estimates exports and imports to contract between 13% and 32% this year.

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