Where 200 million tons pass through

The work of São Paulo pilots in Latin America’s second largest port and in the complex where the largest Transpetro terminal operates

São Sebastião

Terminal

Commercial docks

Manager Alexandre Canhetti At Pilot Station Headquarters

Whoever lives in front of the shipping channel in Santos will at any time see the ships sailing to and fro. After all, 28.8% of Brazilian foreign exports pass through there. A daily average is 34 maneuvers. Last year, there were 11,771 events, with 162.4 million tons shifted (+10.5%). But the São Paulo Pilotage Zone (ZP-16) is greater than the second largest port in Latin America. A hundred and sixty kilometers away is the São Sebastião port complex, with the commercial docks and Transpetro terminal, 50% of the country’s petroleum supplying four refineries in the state. That means 50 tankers per month. In 2022, the movement was 58.9 million tons of liquid bulk, including by-products. For SP Pilotage, the challenges in both complexes are different, as shown by Rumos Práticos in the tenth article of the series on Brazilian pilotage zones.

In the Santos port complex, 67 berths are distributed along 16 kilometers of quayside. On the shores of Santos and Guarujá there are leased terminals in the area of the organized port – stretching from Alemoa, where another Transpetro unit operates – and private terminals (TUPs). Usiminas and VLI TUPs are at the end of the access channel in Cubatão. In front of Alemoa, a new regasification terminal of liquified natural gas is being built. According to the SP Pilotage executive manager, Alexandre Canhetti, since Santos is a multi-cargo and passenger port, there is every kind of vessel, except oil rigs. The main products involve agribusiness and containerized cargo. The port does not shift ore.

All this cargo is distributed through a narrow and shallow winding channel, in a scenario where the ships only grow in size. When the São Paulo Pilotage president began in the profession 53 years ago, vessels were an average of 150 meters in length.

“Today, 270 meters is the length of a small vessel”, comments pilot Fabio Mello Fontes.

The largest to dock in Santos was a container carrier of 347.50 meters and 45.20 meters in breadth, but the port is approved to receive 366-meter vessels. To guarantee this operation in safety, the pilots studied for two years and trained on reduced-scale models in the USA.

The channel depth is 15 meters and maritime authorized maximum draft at high tide of 14.50 meters almost throughout the stretch. Pilot Bruno Tavares, vice-president of SP Pilotage, believes that the most significant environmental challenge is when a strong cold front arrives, the weather changes and the vessel is impacted by stronger waves and wind force, increasing the risk of it touching the bottom. In certain conditions, when operations become more delicate, the Port Authority will close the channel or restrict draft.

“We are constantly mindful of the height and period of the wave in the access channel, because we have limiting weather conditions for the ships (length of more than 306 meters and over 45 meters in breadth). Depending on the situation, we have to ask the Port Authority for a draft restriction because of the waves, making use of the information of two buoys strategically positioned in the access channel, measuring wavelength and height.”

According to Bruno Tavares, sometimes as a result of a condition that prevents disembarking outside the bar, the pilot leaves the ship for the pilot boat in a safe, protected place in the channel:

“We disembark and go on board the pilot boat in front of the ship, guiding and advising the ship’s captain (indirect piloting). However, it’s not always possible, if the captain has little experience with Santos or does not feel confident enough to proceed with indirect piloting. In the latter case, we are obligated to follow in the ship and cast a shadow (protective maneuver) in order to disembark safely outside the bar.”

Another point of attention in the channel is the heavy traffic of sport and recreation vessels and fishing boats.

“Weekends are crazy. It is full, and we have to redouble our care. There are also many fishing boats… Sometimes we have to go ahead and ask them to leave so that the ship can pass. They leave it to the last moment to move away. On such an occasion, if the ship’s engine doesn’t work then it’s all over, isn’t it? Every so often, the fishing boat engine fails when trying to get out of the way and we have to pull it. We need to do that every now and again”, recalls Jorge Moura, master of the pilot boat, who’s been working in pilotage since 1989.

There is also some concern with the ports of the ferries that carry vehicles on the Santos-Guarujá crossing, where ship crossings are forbidden. Pilot Carlos Alberto de Souza Filho, former SP Pilotage president, prevented a late-night accident on that site:

“After I turned the ship, I started to sail and liberated the tug. Making the bend for the ferryboat, with rudder astern, the ship stopped completely, bearing starboard, and loomed over the ferryboat. It was 1:30 in the morning and I was doing around 8.2 knots speed. I asked the captain to drop only one shackle (27.45 meters) of the portside anchor to exert force and reduce speed and a yaw rate starboard. Through my VHF, I warned about the possibility of collision with the ferryboat, to remove the people, and action emergency tugs. The anchor saved the day by securing the bow, and a tug arrived in time to secure the stern that was almost on top.”

When problems like that appear or conditions change drastically in the middle of a maneuver, the pilot needs to act within the constraints of a channel with no anchorage places, the average width of which is 220 meters, according to the Port Authority. After the company’s area of jurisdiction, from Alemoa, the channel narrows to a hundred meters towards the Cubatão terminals. There, the maneuvering basin has a limited diameter. The ships turn very close to those that are berthed in the terminals and sail close to each other.

Even with width and depth restrictions, SP Pilotage has succeeded in making the Santos complex more efficient, despite the increase in ships. In 2022, most of them had 50,000-ton displacement, or 336 meters in length and 48 meters in breadth. In 2003, the 225m x 32m vessels were leading the maneuvers.

The turning point not to lose agility and maintain safety was the new concept in 2012 of the pilotage operations center (C3OT). The space has AIS traffic monitoring systems; remote sensing of tide height, current, wind, wavelength and height; visibility metering; powerful communication and image systems covering the entire channel.

In 2016, the ReDRAFT tool was incorporated, which uses C3OT data to determine with more precision the safe draft of the ships, extending the operating windows. And, two years ago, two-way traffic was set up, as well as simultaneous maneuvers (turning, berthing and unberthing) in once restricted stretches, also contributing to increasing the productivity of the terminal. To do so, the pilotage procured a software that calculates the crossing point of the vessels and began to analyze the timing of each maneuver of a special ship or of each combined maneuver.

The pilotage headquarters also has a bathymetric service to update the depth in the channel, maneuvering basins and berths. The estuary receives accretion of sand from the ocean surf and rivers flowing into it. According to hydrographer Helder Puia, logistics manager of the station, the monthly sedimentation rate is 12 centimeters. Whenever the pilots feel there is a problem in navigating, the bathymetric boat will go out with multibeam equipment and perform an “ultrasonography” of the bottom. Should there be silting, the Port Authority is informed so that it has plenty of time to solve the problem.

The pilotage station has another five 34ft and two 44ft speedboats, five 28ft port boats and four mooring boats. All mechanical engines are being replaced with electronic engines, more efficient and less polluting, in an environmental, social and governance (ESG) program. The repair yard, which is building another boat, is on the other side of the station and the pilots’ boarding bridge, on Guarujá shore. In total, the agency has 63 pilots and 104 employees.

S O Sebasti O Complex

Two of the speedboats are always in São Sebastião, where two pilots are always on duty. In Santos there are 12. In addition to the Transpetro terminal, a commercial wharf is managed by the state government under federal delegation. In 2022, 918,879 tons of cargo were handled, a 30.26% increase. Soda ash, malt, barley, sugar, silicate glass, sodium sulfate, timber and cattle were among the main products, but the port also receives vehicles and cruise ship passengers.

It’s in the Transpetro unit, however, that more sensitive maneuvers occur, due to the high potential harm to the environment and tourism. In the tourist season, there is heavy traffic of swimmers’ speedboats.

Last year, the terminal, facing Ilhabela, handled 58.9 million tons of oil and by-products, an 8% increase. This is a port with natural depth operating very large crude carriers (VLCC), 333 meters in length, 60 meters in breadth and up to 22 meters draft, despite the predominance of the 278x49 meter Suezmax vessels.

It has two piers with four berths: two of them external facing Ilhabela and the two internal on the São Sebastião side. The terminal also undertakes starboard ship-to-ship operations for oil transfer.

Normally ship handling is done with four tugs. Because of the responsibility the pilot can only start training in São Sebastião after three stages of restricted qualification in Santos, in which they progress according to the size and draft of the ships.

“The maneuvers are much more critical. The weights are much heavier, and vessel capacities much smaller. An oil tanker has little force, and the terminals are fragile. We can’t be violent when docking because the quay is not solid and is built on stilts. Moreover, the ocean currents are, as a rule, very strong (sometimes in excess of three knots)”, explains pilot Mello Fontes.

According to pilot Souza Filho another characteristic is that the terminal was implemented without a proper study of prevailing currents, being 15-30o out of current alignment:

“This makes it so much harder. At the final stage of maneuvers, we have to fight against nature.”

The inland berths are narrower. Pilot Carlos Eduardo Balthazar says that berthing in P2 on the port side, when the current comes from the South, is perhaps the most complicated maneuver of ZP-16:

“We turn the ship, move astern and berth. There is a shallow part on one side, a pier on the other side and behind. We have to be careful and use the current and not just tugs to perform the maneuver.”

The prevailing strong winds are yet another complication, and the conditions could suddenly change. In the storm that struck São Sebastião in April 2019, the velocity was more than 100 knots and two loaded tankers that were on starboard in a ship-to-ship operation drifted towards the rocks on Ilhabela. Pilots Marcio Santos and Fabio de Abreu managed to board the ships and prevent a serious accident. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) awarded them for their bravery.

“That day, the motorboat master (Sandro Carvalho) set off from here navigating by instruments. You couldn’t see anything at all”, recalls boat master Ilenildo Louredo.

Captain Abel Sanca, almost ten years in command with Transpetro, deals with pilots worldwide and praises the competence of the Brazilian professionals:

“Pilotage helps us with safe port arrival and departure. The pilots are specialists in the maneuvers to our destination. I’m a born nautical officer, but they have the expertise of the area in which they are trained. They know the currents, wind, impact on the bearing (difference between the bottom course and the true bow heading) and are already aware of what is happening. Brazilian pilots are very good indeed.

Suezmax Turning In Front Of Ilhabela