Port of Santos on alert after inspectors announce nationwide strike

A day after the National Union of Employees of National Regulatory Agencies (Sinagências) announced a 48-hour strike on July 31st and August 1st, entities operating at the Port of Santos raised concerns about the movement’s impact.

Hugo Evangelista, director of the Union of Customs Brokers of Santos and Region, believes there could be an overload at the port complex. “The operational capacity of the terminals will be affected. There will be two days without cargo release, with new goods coming in but nothing going out. This will lead to an increase in the volume of containers accumulating at the terminals and in ship demand”.

Evangelista emphasized that without merchandise clearance by the regulatory agency customs brokers cannot proceed with cargo clearance.

To mitigate the impacts, José Roque, executive director of the Maritime Navigation Agencies Union of the State (Sindamar), instructed companies to anticipate requests for free pratique (permission issued by Anvisa authorizing operations) 72 hours before the vessel’s arrival, to prevent ships from anchoring and waiting.

Please refer to the chart below to see how the Port of Santos fared regarding container exports and imports between January 2021 and May 2024. The information was derived from DataLiner. The expansion of the Santos Brasil terminal in the Port of Santos is expected to help ease congestion issues and increase container traffic.

Container Exports & Imports at Santos Port | Jan 2021 – May 2024 | TEUs

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

“The greatest difficulty will be for ships requiring onboard sanitary inspection, which are physical, scheduled, processed through the ‘Porto Sem Papel’ system and conducted with the ship docked”.

Roque mentioned that the entity requested from the Port, Airports, Borders and Customs Enclosures Management and from the Anvisa supervisor that, for ships without onboard diseases, the certificate be issued remotely, with a health declaration issued by the captain.

Jackson Campos, a foreign trade specialist and director of AGL Cargo, anticipates that many cargoes will be stuck at the Port awaiting inspections, potentially causing a backlog of containers.

Campos believes that Santos terminals have the capacity to handle a two day strike. “If it extends, there could be an increase in queuing at the docks or even redirection of vessels to nearby ports”.

Jackson noted that the strike impacts the economy as extra costs are passed on to consumers through products.

In a statement, the Port Authority of Santos (APS) stated that it “does not comment on labor relations between other entities at the Port and their employees”.

Source: A Tribuna

Click here to read this story’s original rendition: https://www.atribuna.com.br/noticias/portomar/en/port-of-santos-on-alert-after-inspectors-announce-nationwide-strike-1.427898

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