Gustavo Bonato News

The loading of iron ore at Brazil's Itaguaí terminal operated by mining and steel firm Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional, or CSN, have been halted since Saturday due to an accident, sources and the Itaguaí Port Authority told Reuters on Wednesday.   Some Capesize bulk carriers that were waiting to load iron ore at the terminal are being put back into the charter market, said a German shipping source, due to the impossibility to load the product in Brazil. CSN confirmed the accident, but had no immediate information regarding Itaguaí operations. (Reporting by Alberto Alerigi Jr and Gustavo Bonato; Additional reporting by Michael Hogan; Writing by Marcelo Teixeira)

Brazil's new sugar terminal at the port of Suape in the state of Pernambuco will load its first ship on Friday, opening a new export corridor for mills in the Northeast at a time of strong demand for the sweetener.   The Suape Sugar Terminal (TAS) was built by the Agrovia do Nordeste consortium, which is controlled by the logistic arm of Brazilian engineering conglomerate Odebrecht and by transportation firm Agrovia.     (Reporting by Gustavo Bonato; Writing by Reese Ewing and Marcelo Teixeira)

The entrance to Brazil's largest  reopened on Thursday, after rough seas prevented ships from entering or leaving for more than 30 hours during peak soy export season.   Around 20 ships were delayed entering or leaving the channel, port authority Codesp said.   Santos is the world's largest sugar exporting port and Brazil's top exporter of soybeans. (Reporting by Gustavo Bonato; Writing by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Meredith Mazzilli)

An agitated sea has blocked the entrance to Brazil's largest port of Santos, preventing ships from entering or leaving for more than 12 hours during peak soy export season. Nine ships were stopped from leaving the channel and 10 from entering since Wednesday evening, port authority Codesp said on Thursday. Santos is the world's largest sugar exporting port and Brazil's top exporter of soybeans. Reporting by Gustavo Bonato

Maersk Line, the world's largest container ship operator, said on Wednesday it was consolidating operations in Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay to cut costs amid falling freight rates. Maersk Line, part of Denmark's Maersk Group, said shipping volumes should not be affected by its decision to put operations in four different countries under one director. "We will maintain capacity and offer a more consistent frequency," Antonio Dominguez, the new director of operations for the east coast of South America, told Reuters. Maersk Line expects demand for container shipping to remain weak in 2016, with growth of 1 percent to 3 percent, due to ample offer. Latin America accounted for around 12 percent of Maersk Line's global volumes in 2015.

Logistics firm Hidrovias do Brasil plans to start exporting grains from a new terminal with up to 6.5 million tonnes annual capacity in the Brazilian Amazon in July, serving international grain merchants, CEO Bruno Serapião said.   Noble Agri and Holland's Nidera, both controlled by Chinese food giant COFCO, as well as Multigrain, a Brazilian subsidiary of Japan's Mitsui, signed long-term contracts to use the terminal on the Tapajos river in Para state, he said in an interview.     (Reporting by Gustavo Bonato; Writing by Caroline Stauffer)

A ship carrying corn was scheduled to leave Brazil for the United States on Monday, three shipping agents said, as a strong dollar and plentiful South American supply makes importing corn attractive to U.S. buyers. The ship owned by Bunge Ltd, carrying 54,000 tonnes of corn, was scheduled to depart Itacoatiara Port on the Amazon river, data from Williams Shipping agents and Brazil-based Cargonave showed. A third source, who declined to be named, said the cargo was bound for the port of Wilmington, in North Carolina. Bunge did not respond to a request for comment. The sale reflects the increasing competitiveness of grains from Brazil, which has drastically increased output over the past decade and more recently has improved shipping logistics. Brazil, the world's No.

Brazil's Santos port authority has decided to reduce the drafts on some terminals, including the ones operated by Noble Agri, a local subsidiary of Asian commodities trader Noble Group, and Copersucar due to excess sediment, two shipping agencies said on Monday.   The reductions vary from 0.30 to 2 meters, possibly reducing ship loading capacity at the terminals, the agencies said.     (Reporting by Gustavo Bonato; Writing by Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by David Gregorio)

Access to Brazil's largest port, Santos, was fully restored for cargo and passenger vehicles on Monday after one entrance had been partially blocked for a week due to a fire at a nearby fuel-tank facility, highway operator Ecovias said. Authorities had blocked the entrance due to its proximity to the fire at the fuel-tank facility operated by Ultracargo, a unit of Brazilian chemical and fuel-distribution company Grupo Ultra. An entrance on the opposite side of the port's shipping channel, in Guaruja, was not affected.

Truck access to Brazil's main port of Santos will increase over the weekend as work to control a week-old fire at a neighboring fuel tank facility winds down, the local mayor's office said. The fire was mostly extinguished by Friday morning, with fire fighters working to cool the tanks and snuff out any flames still forming in the released gas. It should be completely burned out by Saturday, the mayor's office said. Authorities blocked an entrance to the port for cargo trucks near the Ultracargo facility for a fifth day on Friday, but trucks have been able to access the Santos side of the port at night. The other side, in Guaruja, has not been affected.

The mayor of Santos suspended on Friday operations at a fuel storage warehouse in Brazil after a week-long fire at the facility operated by Ultracargo slowed exports from the country's largest port. Ultracargo, a unit of Brazilian chemical and fuel-distribution company Grupo Ultra, said its facility had always complied with legal and technical standards and that it would provide any necessary clarifications to the mayor. The fire was mostly extinguished by Friday morning, with fire fighters working to cool the tanks and snuff out flames still forming in the released gas. Authorities blocked an entrance to the port for cargo trucks near the Ultracargo facility for a fifth day on Friday although trucks have been able to access the Santos side of the port at night and the other side…

Trucks will be able to access a blocked entrance at Santos, Brazil's largest port, at night while firefighters finish extinguishing a blaze at a nearby fuel-storage facility, city and port authorities said. The more flexible rules will provide some relief for grain exports that have slowed since Monday, when authorities restricted truck access to terminals on one side of the port while flames are extinguished. The firefighters' office in Sao Paulo state said via Twitter that one of six fuel tanks at the facility operated by Ultracargo, a unit of Brazilian chemical and fuel-distribution company Grupo Ultra, was still on fire. Highway police are escorting truck convoys past the blocked entrances, and 750 passed through in a convey on Tuesday.

Trucks delivering grains and other goods to Brazil's largest port of Santos will be restricted through at least Wednesday, the port authority said on Tuesday, as a nearby fuel-storage facility burned for a sixth day. Three confirmed days of restricted arrivals will likely slow exports from the port responsible for moving one third of Brazil's soybeans, two sources with operations at the port told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Brazil, the world's No. 2 soybean producer, is finalizing the harvest of a record crop. Trucks heading to the right side of the port through the city of Santos on the Anchieta Highway were prevented from entering from midnight (0400 GMT) on Monday.

A fire at a fuel-storage facility at the Port of Santos, the largest port in Brazil, burned for a sixth day on Tuesday, restricting access to trucks delivering grains and other goods. Firefighters on Monday managed to extinguish the flames at a facility run by Ultracargo, a unit of Brazilian chemical and fuel-distribution company Grupo Ultra, only to see gasoline in one of the tanks reignite. By Tuesday morning two of the six fuel tanks at the facility were on fire, Ultracargo said in a statement. Police and highway operators have blocked much of the truck access to the port, and the harbor master has banned ship movements at terminals along the busy Alemoa docks. As a result, ships cannot restock bunker-fuel supplies.

The first ship to load soybeans from the new Tegram terminal in the northeastern port of Ponta Madeira in Sao Luis, Brazil, will berth on March 10, local shipping agents Cargonave said on Tuesday.   The Panamax class vessel Scythia Graeca will haul 66,000 tonnes of soybeans for U.S.-based CHS bound for China.     (Reporting by Gustavo Bonato; Writing by Reese Ewing; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Some truck drivers in Brazil continued blocking roads on Tuesday, slowing grains deliveries to southern ports, even as adherence to the strike diminished and a key highway in top soy state Mato Grosso opened. Nationwide, there were 18 roadblocks over rising freight costs by the end of the day on Monday, well below peaks of more than 100 a week ago, federal highway police said. With the two-week-old protests concentrated in the south, however, the situation at No. 2 soy exporting port Paranagua remained critical, a spokesman said. On Monday just over 700 trucks arrived at the port, less than half the normal amount for this time of the year. With stocks running out, the port can only guarantee exports of soybeans and soymeal through Wednesday, the spokesman said.

Truckers protesting high diesel prices in Brazil used road blocks to restrict the flow of soy, corn and other commodities in a key grain-growing region for a third day on Friday, threatening what is expected to be a record harvest. A group of transport companies and independent truckers are blocking the flow of goods on the main highway and other major roads in Mato Grosso, a center-west state that is Brazil's top producer of soybeans and a major source of corn and livestock. "Everything is stopped," a silo manager at a multinational grain trader in the state said on condition of anonymity. He said trucks were allowed to go to local silos to unload but not to crushers or ports.

A protest by fishermen at the container shipping port of Itajai in southern Brazil has prevented several ships from entering or leaving, the local port authority said on Tuesday. Fishermen started protesting government measures to stop fishing of endangered species on Monday, saying many of the species have commercially viable populations. Itajai does not ship bulk grains but it is an important commercial center for frozen meat. Brazil is the world's No. 1 beef exporter. In addition to three stalled container ships…

Football fever is so intense in Brazil, the host of the World Cup soccer tournament, that even the main shipping ports in the commodity-exporting powerhouse are shutting down when the national team plays. In Paranagua, Brazil's No. 2 soy exporting port, the dock workers' union negotiated an ordinance that lets them stop working an hour before the match and resume work an hour afterward for a total of around four hours to relax and watch the Brazilian team. "This is unprecedented…

Brazil, Argentina and the United States have tightened port entry procedures for ships that have sailed from West Africa in a bid to control the potential spread of the deadly Ebola virus. Ebola has killed more than 3,400 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, and its spread has become a global concern -- with worries for trade, which could affect the airline and tourism industries together with seaborne activity. The virus is already threatening to disrupt logistics activity…

Poor soy crushing margins in China that have led the country to default on soy purchases are short term and should improve in two to three months, Bunge Ltd's chief executive officer said. CEO Soren Schroder was in Brazil for the inauguration on Friday of Bunge's terminal in Barcarena in Para state on Brazil's northern coast, which cost 700 million reais ($314 million) to build and has a capacity of 4 million tonnes. "Margins in China are bad for everyone," Schroder said at a dinner late on Thursday. But "it's a short-term problem," he added.