Port of Santos breaks records in 2019

According to data released by the Santos Port Authority’s (SPA) Tariff and Statistics Management, the Port of Santos registered a record breaking performance in 2019. The result is both for general traffic as well as containerized cargo, . Total throughput reached 134,010,492 tons while containerized cargo reached 4,165,248 TEU (standard measure for 20-foot containers). Both general traffic and containerized cargo broke records last year. Total numbers grew by 0.64% while containerized cargo grew 1.04%, respectively.

SPA Operations Director Marcelo Ribeiro recalls that in 2019 the monthly record was broken twice: “There were 12.74 million in July and 12.78 million in October”, he says. The director also highlights the actions taken: “We have increased inspection and released public berths for new operations in order to increase productivity and maximize usage.

These initiatives led to a drop in the length of ship lines waiting to berth at the Port of Santos: “The daily average number of vessels in the bar waiting to enter the estuary fell from 80, in March, to 55 in October and finally 45 in December”, concludes Ribeiro.

Throughput in December

In December, containerized cargo, rose 9.8%, setting a new record for the month, up to 364,390 TEU. These figures surpassed the previous largest results, achieved in December 2018 (331,730 TEU). Total cargo handling also went well and reached 10,211,886 tons, confirming its second largest mark, second only to the record reached in December 2018 (10,843,180 tons).

The record breaking numbers are definitively driven by discharging operations. With 39,655,404 tons, they showed a growth of 2.1% over 2018 (38,820,812 tons), while shipments maintained the same performance of the previous year.

In the total for the year, the most prominent goods among the discharged cargoes that showed growth were fertilizer (5,632,365 tons, +23.0), diesel oil and diesel (2,506,596 tons, + 33.6%) and phosphate from calcium (1,007,272 tons, + 28.6%).

In terms of cargo shipped, operations with corn (16,595,410 tons, + 31.1%), coffee beans (2,274,350, + 85.4%) and meat (1,683,772 t, +116 , 8%).

Container operations had a great year. The monthly total in TEUs was already mentioned (364,390, + 9.8%), and units reached 224,922, up 7.2%. The monthly total in tons was 3,975,894 tons, almost 40% of total cargo for the month and up 3, 6%. In the year so far, as well as the 4,165,248 TEU, the historical record was also set for cargo tonnage, with 45,987,430 tons, 34% of the total cargo handled in the Port of Santos in 2019, and an increase of 0.3 % compared to 2018.

Analysis of the number of ship calls saw that in 2019 there was a slight decrease of 0.2% in relation to 2018, with 4,842 vessels. The average consignment registered an increase of 1.26%, up to 28,495 tons per ship.

Summary of cargo handling at the Port of Santos

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