SOUTHERN BRAZIL: CONTAINER HANDLING

Asia service (average of 8800TEU ships) which switched to Itapoa both its north and southbound calls; CMA CGM/ Hapag Lloyd’s Africa service (2850TEU vessels) and Brasex (CMA CGM and Cosco with 3100TEU) both switched to Navegantes. Other deep-sea services just cut Itajai and added extra boxes to the two closest rivals.

In terms of coastal services: the Atlantico Sul (2600TEU) and Amazonas (2500TEU) and (MSC’s Brazilian flag carrier Log In Logistica and CMA CGM’s Mercosul Line), switched to Navegantes and Itapoa, respectively.

The demise of Rio Grande, where Wilson, Sons operates the Tecon Rio Grande (TRG) terminal, has also been a key factor in the pendulum swing of cargo moves in southern Brazilian ports. TRG handled 517,665TEU in 2022, giving it a 19.6 per cent slump over 2021 figures, the second biggest fall in all Brazil.

Various sources and consultancies put this down largely to “blank sailings and cancelled calls” plus “bad weather.” TRG suffers in that it is at the “end of the line” in Brazil in terms of international carriers’ liner schedules so when bad weather or congestion at earlier (often more important) ports causes delays the easiest way to get back on schedule is to cancel the final run from, say, TCP/IPC/Itapoa or even from Santos and turnaround at one of these locations.

It is notable that in 2022 of 415 scheduled services for TRG 150 were blank sailings, which is more than a third, compared to 154 out 702 for Navegantes (just 20 per cent).

What is clear that the trend away from Rio Grande looks set to continue for the rest of this year and Itajai’s situation looks very difficult and will depend on Maersk and whether it acts to help the Itajai port community. Conversely, as long as they can find the space, Itapoa, TCP and Portonave look set to continue building their throughput.

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