Santos records a 1.5% drop in cargo handling in Q1, 2019

Brazil’s busiest port, Santos, saw a 1.5% year-on-year decrease in cargo movements in the first quarter of 2019, reaching 30.448m tons. The drop is due to a significant 7.2% reduction in cargo movement in March, particularly impacted by a decreases in soybean exports, sugar shipments and fertilizer imports. All in all, these commodities wiped out almost 650,000 tons from the port’s first quarter record. Last month DatamarNews reported that cargo volumes handled at the Port of Santos surpassed 10m tons, a first for the month of February.

Despite drops in soybean exports, the port registered a 9.1% growth in soybean complex shipments in the first quarter of the year. Earlier this month, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) lowered Brazil’s soybean export forecast to 79.5m tons this year, down from 81m tons in December.

Santos registered an 11.5% drop in TEU movements in March 2019, compared to the same period last year. However, containerized coffee and meat shipments registered improvements in March, while exports of pulp grew by 8.7% in the first three months of 2019, year-on-year.

The following graph shows Santos container terminals export figures since 2009:

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