In a new report, Brazil's Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade said that vessels calling at ports in the country last year spent 90% of their time either awaiting a free berth or the arrival of a shipment. As a result, Brazilian ports are expensive to use and exports are less competitive. In Santos the average time for a vessel to be loaded with maize was 18.7 days, of which 16.3 days were down to waiting time. It was a similar position with soya bean meal and sugar, whereby 8.8 days of the total layover of 11.4 days was down to waiting time. Some Chinese customers have cancelled contracts for soya bean. Truck queues outside the port of Santos stretched at one point to 30 km.
展开▼
