Fire Still Restricts Trucks from Brazil’s Largest Port

RIO DE JANEIRO, April 7 (Reuters) – A hearth at a fuel-storage facility on the Port of Santos, the most important port in Brazil, burned for a sixth day on Tuesday, proscribing entry to vans delivering grains and different items.

Firefighters on Monday managed to extinguish the flames at a facility run by Ultracargo, a unit of Brazilian chemical and fuel-distribution firm Grupo Ultra, solely to see gasoline in one of many tanks reignite.

By Tuesday morning two of the six gasoline tanks on the facility had been on fireplace, Ultracargo mentioned in an announcement.

Police and freeway operators have blocked a lot of the truck entry to the port, and the harbor grasp has banned ship actions at terminals alongside the busy Alemoa docks. As a outcome, ships can’t restock bunker-fuel provides.

The delays are unlikely to have an effect on soybean and different grain-export volumes this month because the port has ample shares, business representatives mentioned on Monday. Santos handles a 3rd of Brazil’s soybean exports, half of its corn exports and far of the nation’s espresso and sugar shipments.

Port officers, nonetheless, mentioned they didn’t know the way lengthy exports could possibly be maintained within the face of the truck restrictions.

Trucks heading to the “right,” or City of Santos, aspect of the port on the Anchieta Highway had been prevented from getting into from midnight (0400 GMT) on Monday, freeway operator EcoRodovias mentioned.

The Santos mayor’s workplace plans to maintain the doorway closed to most vans till Friday, as firefighters include and clear up after the blaze. However, port authority Codesp mentioned on Twitter that the ban could be re-evaluated on Tuesday.

Trucks can nonetheless proceed to Guaruja, a metropolis on the “left” aspect of the ship channel that gives entry to the port.

The Santos aspect of the port is house to sugar terminals operated by Copersucar and Cosan SA’s Rumo Logistica. With the cane harvest starting, Brazil is months away from peak sugar exports.

The Guaruja aspect is the positioning of the 6-million-tonne TGG grain terminal operated by ALL-America Latina Logistica SA , Amaggi and Bunge Ltd, in addition to sugar terminal TAEG, a 50-50 three way partnership between Cargill Inc and Louis Dreyfus Commodities’ Biosev sugar unit.

Six tanks with a mixed capability of 34,000 cubic meters (214,000 barrels) of ethanol and gasoline had been broken after the hearth first broke out on Thursday, Ultracargo mentioned. Not all of the tanks had been full on the time the blaze began. (Reporting by Jeb Bloun, Gustavo Bonato and Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Paul Simao)