Posted on June 6, 2017
By Rob Ward, JOC.com
Shippers using the south Brazilian port of Itajai and other southern ports are facing expensive delays and storage costs as severe rainstorms and strong river currents impede port operations.
The Itajai port complex has been closed for the past six days and is not expected to open again until Sunday at the earliest. Meanwhile, three vessels, two of them fully laden container ships, are stuck at berth as 11 other ships wait to enter the port. If operations are not resumed soon, shippers could face losses that run into tens of millions of dollars.
Itajai is Brazil’s second-busiest container port and is still working to recover from flooding and draft restrictions that began in 2015 as emergency dredging funding and work have not been enough to restore the port’s typical draft.
Itajai and the neighboring port of Paranagua compete regularly for the title of “Chicken Export Capital of the World,” and Itajai in 2016 handled more than 1 million TEU, with about one-tenth, or 106,000 TEU, being chicken, while another 15,000 TEU consisted of pork. Paranagua handled close to 120,000 TEU of chicken last year and now reefer facilities in both ports are “massively overloaded” because of the Itajai port closure.
A spokesman for the Itajai Port Authority confirmed that no vessels had been allowed to traverse the entrance channel for the past six days because the heavy rains had caused the current of the Itajai-Acu River to flow at dangerous speeds of more than 5 knots (5.75 miles per hour), while a speed of around 2 knots is deemed to be safe.
“We have had zero vessels able to call at the port over the past six days and we have three vessels stuck at berths, two at Portonave and one at Teporti (a general cargo terminal),” he said. “This is now having a knock-on effect, with the reefer plugs in the port mostly full now. We have basically had major problems for nearly two weeks.”
The Evergreen Valor and ER Seoul (operated by Hapag-Lloyd) are stuck at berth, and some of the ships waiting to enter the port are the MSC Arica, MSC Vidi, MOL Londrina, Northern Delight, Bow Querida, C-Escort, and C-Commodore.
Although Itajai has a well-developed reefer warehousing network, with more than seven very large installations, they are all overflowing.
Just over two weeks ago the port was closed owing to high winds and high waves before temporarily reopening for a few days, and shortly thereafter the coast guard and port pilots closed the port again because of the currents.
“We are going to look again at the water levels (Saturday) and on Sunday, and if they show that the river is flowing at less than 2 knots we will reopen to commercial traffic,” said the spokesman. “The current is slowing right now, but it is unpredictable. Until (Saturday) and Sunday we must all wait.”
Antonio Dominguez, CEO for Maersk Line in the East Coast of South America trade, said that the Itajai closures have been causing numerous problems.
“Itajai has been closed for a week now because of heavy rains and strong currents,” he told JOC.com, “With reefer plugs and storage capacity running out, it is causing massive problems for us and the reefer industry as a whole in the south of Brazil.”
He said that adding to the trouble was the fact the nearby port of Itapoa does not have the warehousing space needed to deal with the extra reefer boxes.
If the port does not reopen soon, millions of dollars of chicken and pork shipments will rot on the quayside.
Source: JOC.com
