Timely Terminal Boost For Wilson, Sons

Major Brazilian shipping group, Wilson, Sons has received a boost as shipping lines are bringing additional cargo to the company’s two terminals, as Rob Ward confirms.

In the January-February edition of Port Strategy, it was reported that Wilson, Sons had removed its two terminal operations from the market due to lack of a suitable offer.

Now, the diversified Brazilian shipping group, has received a major boost for these same two facilities with news that CMA CGM and other carriers are now preferring to offload their River Plate transhipment cargo at Tecon Rio Grande (in the far South of Brazil) and Tecon Salvador (in the Brazilian northeast region).

For many years, shipping lines have been running “simulations” and researching “options” to avoid the extra two to three days sailing down to the River Plate [from Rio Grande], especially with the restricted draft making it almost impossible for the larger vessels calling East Coast of South America to berth at Buenos Aires these days.

Now, with improved and expanding cabotage (Brazil) and Gran Cabotage services (Big Cabotage basically means sailing up and down the East Coast of South America, calling in Uruguay and Argentina as well) the options for carriers have never been greater.

As a result, Mercosul Line (CMA CGM), Alianca Navegacao (Hamburg Sud/Maersk Line) and Brazilian owned LogIn Logistica Ltda, are all providing numerous services from Manaus – in the Amazonas jungle region – all the way to the south of Brazil, and then Montevideo (Uruguay) and turning at Buenos Aires and/or Zarate and La Plata (Argentina).

With the Sirius/Bossa Nova service, in which CMA CGM operates two vessels and Maersk Line five ships, Tecon Salvador is to become the hub for CMA CGM’s Argentina/Uruguay import cargo from the Mediterranean and TRG will load Argentine/Uruguay export cargoes from now until further notice.

Demir Lourenco, the executive director for Tecon Salvador, said that the re-configuration will add around 500 TEU per month and 6,000 TEU per year to the already rising volumes handled by the Wilson, Sons terminal. There will be an even bigger boost for TRG in the south.

“This arrangement is great news for us and it is good timing as from March or April of this year we will also see our new berth come on-stream,” he told Port Strategy. “This will double our berthing length allowing us to handle two large ships and one smaller vessel simultaneously. It will increase our annual capacity from 430,000 TEU up to 530,000 TEU.”

Mr Lourenco added that Tecon Salvador can currently handle vessels of up to 307m in length but when the new berth configuration is operational over the next few months it will be able to handle vessels up to 366m in length, which are yet to call in the ECSA trades.

Leandro Carelli Barreto, a consultant and director for the Solve Shipping consultancy based in Sao Paulo, also endorsed the simulation process previously undertaken. “When I worked at Hamburg Sud a few years ago we spent more than 10 years simulating the movement of cargo to the River Plate and the transhipment possibilities but back then the Transhipment costs were higher than the savings made on cutting one vessel from the schedule,” explained Mr Barreto, adding, “Also the volumes of Argentine import cargo were very high. However, now that these costs have been reduced, owing to more competition at key Brazilian ports, and the Argentine financial crises, imports are way down, this system is now cost effective.”

Mr Barreto further explained that congestion at Santos is causing carriers to find alternative ports for transhipment and so this agreement between the French carrier and Wilson, Sons seems ideal.

Tecon Salvador has already seen an upturn in cabotage and import cargo over the past three years and recently released throughput figures showing that a record 211,540 TEU were handled during 2019, up 4% on 2018. Of those boxes, some 44,149 TEU were import containers, representing an impressive 12% over the 39,439 TEU moved in the previous year. Cabotage hit 50,101 TEU in 2019, up 5%.

As well as TRG and Tecon Salvador Wilson, Sons also operates dry ports, two Offshore Support Bases (for supply vessels), a shipping agency, a shipyard and a tug operation. However, it will be encouraged by the latest developments, especially coming so soon after deciding that the terminals were no longer for sale.
Source: Port Strategy