Port of Santos ranks in the top 40 for container throughput

In 2018, the Port of Santos ranking reached the 39th position among the largest ports in the world in container handling, according to a survey released on Wednesday (31) by the British specialized publication “Lloyd’s List Maritime Intelligence,” one of the most prestigious in the world dedicated to ports and navigation. The 4.12m TEUs moved in 2018 put Santos three positions above their previous ranking. At the top of the list is the Shanghai Port of China, with 42m TEUs. The top ten ports are in Asia – seven in China; one in Singapore; one in South Korea; and one in Dubai.

According to the “One Hundred Ports 2018” ranking, the Port of Santos is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. The magazine highlights the 7% growth registered, which increased the movement from 3.85m TEU in 2017 to 4,12m TEU in 2018. In 2019, the movement is growing and registered monthly records in May and June, although in the year accumulated, it fell 3.5% to 1.9m TEU.

Between 2012 and 2015, the Port of Santos occupied the 1st position in Latin America. Since 2016 it is in 2nd place, behind the Port of Colón (Panama). A specialized Chinese container shipping company manages the Panamanian port, is the 2nd largest in the world for cargo transshipment (behind Hong Kong only).

Below is the list of the 50 largest ports in the world in 2018, highlighting the change in position compared to the previous year.

Porto hits record for June

Cargo handling through the Port of Santos hit a record for June, reaching a total of 11.58m tons and surpassing the highest mark for the period by almost 5%, verified in 2017.

The performance was 6.7% higher compared to June of last year, reflecting the increase in movement in both shipments and discharges. Landfill operations, which increased by 7.0%, grew slightly above shipments, which increased by 6.5% year-on-year.

June’s performance also surpassed the initial forecast for the month for the first time this year, estimated at 11.30m tons. The achievement was almost 2.5% higher than the projection. The slight increase was mainly due to the significant expansion of corn shipments, with 1.24m tons, nearly 18 times higher than in June of the previous year. The sharp rise is the result of the significant increase in exports of bulk cargo (loose on the ship).

The shipment of bulk soybean meal, with 586,599 tons, and the discharge of fertilizer, with 466,654 tons, also showed growth of 88.3% and 35.3% respectively.

Another of June’s highlights was the increase in containerized cargo handling, with a 13.6% increase in tonnage and 12.5% ​​over the total TEU to 3.92m tons and 356,993 TEU respectively.

The monthly total increase would be higher if there were no falls in shipments of the most significant cargo in participation: soy complex and sugar. With 2.54m tons sold in the month, soybeans declined 16.6% with June 2018, while sugar, reaching 1.31m tons, fell 15.8% year-on-year.

The following DataLiner graph shows the Port of Santos container throughput from January 2015 to June 2019:

Accumulated until June

The year-to-date movement total fell by 1.4% to 63.58m tons, ensuring the second largest cargo movement for the period at the Port of Santos. Shipments fell by 2.1%, and discharges grew by 0.5%.

Despite the reduced operations of soy and sugar, it is worth highlighting the significant increase in cargo such as coffee (156.5% in the accumulated and 172.4% in the month), meat (140.1% in the accumulated total and 93.5% in the month ), and corn (61% in the accumulated and 1665.1% in the month).

The flow of ships until June showed a reduction of 3.3%. A total of 2,360 vessels docked in Santos during the period, raising the average consignment to 26,942 tons per ship.

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