The Datamar Business Intelligence team provided the data in this article.

Year-to-date, in the seven first months of the year, Brazil saw a total of 3,960 calls vis-a-vis 4,337 in the period from January to July 2021. Thus, the reduction in the number of calls in the period is 8.7% compared to the same period in 2021.

See below the track record of boxship calls at Brazilian ports from January 2020 to July 2022. The data are from Datamar:

Boxship calls at Brazilian ports | Jan 2020 – Jul 2022

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

In July, the Port of Santos registered 161 boxship calls, up 10% from the same month in 2021.

Below you can compare the number of calls in July 2021 versus the same month in 2022 by port:

Containership calls in Brazil by port | July 2022 vs. July 2021

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

It is worth noting that, according to a study released in recent days by Antaq, the number of boxship calls in Brazil was directly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and associated logistical problems, such as the lack of containers.

Among the main problems caused by the pandemic in maritime transport pointed out by the Antaq study are blank sailings (observed in 90% of the terminals); cargo rolling (delay in loading cargo onto ships); lack of containers; freight increase; congestion at terminals; boarding/landing cancellation; suspension of routes/calls; changes to rules and excessive demurrage charges; user selectivity; and changes in lead times.

* With information from Poder 360

The Port of Santos, the largest in Latin America, recorded 145 box ship calls in June vis-a-vis 151 in June last year, down 3.97%.

Year-to-date, from January to June, Datamar’s team found 3377 containership calls versus 3730 in the same period last year, indicating a 9.46% fall.

Please find below the track record of containership calls at Brazilian ports seen from January 2020 onwards. The data below are from Datamar.

Containership calls at Brazilian ports | Jan 2020 – Jun 2022

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

You can also compare below the number of vessel calls registered in June 2022 and its equivalent one year before, June 2021, by port:

Containership calls in Brazil by port | June 2022 vs. June 2021

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

Even though the number of vessel calls decreased in most Brazilian ports, the Port of Rio de Janeiro engaged in a reverse trend: 56 calls in June 2022 versus 45 in June 2021, up 24.4%.

According to the Port Authority, containerized cargo throughput at the Port of Rio de Janeiro grew during all months of the year, up 26.5% compared to 2021. In May alone, the observed trend increased by 40.3%. From January to May, the Port of Rio de Janeiro handled 215,337 TEUs at the Port of Rio de Janeiro, a volume 30% higher than that recorded in the same period in 2021.

In the first four months of the year, 2,246 stopovers of container ships were recorded vis-a-vis 2,491 stopovers from January to April 2021, a decrease of 9.8%.

See below the track record of containership calls in Brazilian ports from January 2021 to April 2022. Datamar provided the data below:

Containership calls at Brazilian ports per month | Jan 2021 to Apr 2022

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

You can also compare the number of calls registered in April 2022 and April 20211 by port:

Containership calls in Brazil by port | April 2022 compared to April 2021

Containership calls in Brazil by port | April 2022 compared April 2021

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

According to Flávia Takafashi, the National Waterway Transportation Agency director, the decreased number of vessel calls reflects the number of ships that transport products in and out of Brazil being delayed. This problem is caused by the long vessel queues at major international ports. “Ship delays are a problem that started with the lack of containers, which is no longer so relevant for the Brazilian market,” emphasizes the director, explaining that, even though Brazil registered a lack of metallic receptacles, the phenomenon was less intense here than in other countries.

With port omissions increasing, the loads that should be shipped are not at all transported. “They then stay stored until the next time the ship calls. However, there is always the risk of the port being omitted again, given how recurrent the problem has become,” she says, commenting that this situation leads to cargo accumulation, hampering the receipt of new products.

Luiz Fernando Garcia, the CEO of Portos do Paraná, explained that blank sailings have been occurring since last year. According to him, the Port Terminal of Paranaguá (TCP), the main container terminal in the state, recorded 131 blank sailings in 2021, almost one every three days. The number is nearly ten times higher than the average of omissions between 2017 and 2019 and four times higher than the previous year.

To avoid further inconveniences, Antaq created, in October 2021, a working group to evaluate issues related to the handling of containers in Brazilian ports. The idea is to push for greater operational predictability from shipowners. Another measure taken was to change the agency’s tracking system so that omissions, from January 2022 onwards, have to be adequately informed and computed into Antaq’s database to have greater control.

With information from A Tribuna and Agência Infra.

Compared to the previous month, December 2021, the decrease was greater: 4%.

Check the chart below for the calls of container ships in Brazilian ports per month as of January 2021:

Containership calls at Brazilian ports per month | Jan 2022 to Jan 2021

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

Below is a comparison of containership calls in January 2022 and January 2021 by port:

Containership calls in Brazil by port | Jan 2022 to Jan 2021

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

Multipurpose ships

The survey carried out by Datamar also pointed out that despite the high value of freight, 2021 saw an increase in the number of containers transported by multipurpose ships in Brazil as an attempt to circumvent the logistical problems that persisted throughout the year.

These ships handled 10,367 TEUS in 2021, compared to 830 in 2020 (12 times higher) and only 219 in 2019. Check below a comparison of these volumes month by month:

Transport of containers on a multipurpose ship |Jan-Dec 2019-2021| TEU

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

See the chart below for weekly container vessel calls in Brazilian ports since January 2020:

Container Vessel Calls at Brazilian Ports by Week | Jan 2021 to November 2021 (partial)

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

In the accumulated result for the first ten months of the year, 6,163 container ships called at Brazilian ports, a drop of 2.9% compared to the same period in 2020, when 6,347 ships docked.

The ports of Itaqui, Fortaleza, Navegantes, Suape, and Vila do Conde experienced an increase in vessel calls over the previous year. The Port of Imbituba remained stable and the others showed fewer calls. See the graph below:

Container Vessel Calls in Brazil by Port | Jan/Oct 2021 to Jan/Oct 2020

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

According to Datamar’s Market Intelligence team, there are no blank saillings forecast for the next few days.

See the chart below for container vessel calls in Brazilian ports per week since January 2020:

Container vessel calls at Brazilian ports per week | Jan 2020 to October 2021 (partial)

Source: DataLiner (To request a DataLiner demo click here)

Year-to-date figures registered 5,541 container vessel calls in Brazilian ports, a drop of 2.34% over the same period in 2020. The port with the highest volume of calls, Santos, registered a drop of 1.54%. Ports that saw increased vessel calls include Port of Itaqui, with 36% more calls in the YTD 2021 figures compared to the same period in 2020, and Fortaleza, which saw its vessel calls grow 19.57% in the same comparison.

Container vessel calls in Brazil by port | Jan/Sept 2020 to Jan/Sept 2021

Source: DataLiner (To request a DataLiner demo click here)

According to Datamar’s Market Intelligence team, a blank sailing on the ASAS service is scheduled for the next few days on November 16th.

In Santos, there were 154 dockings, an increase of 5.47% compared to July 2021 and a drop of 4.34% compared to August 2020.

See the chart below for container ship stopovers in Brazilian ports per week  as of January 2020:

Container ship stopovers at Brazilian ports per week | Jan 2020 to September 2021 (partial)

Source: DataLiner (To request a DataLiner demo click here)

In the first eight months of the year, Brazilian ports registered 4,941 container ship calls, against 5,043 in the same period of 2020, a drop of 2.02%.

The Port of Itaqui had the largest proportional growth in the number of stopovers in the period: 38.1%, followed by the Port of Fortaleza (+22.5%) and Navegantes (+14.41%). The biggest falls were in the ports of Natal (-12%) and Itajaí (-10.84%). Santos, the largest port in Latin America, had a 1.88% drop in the number of calls in the first eight months of 2021 compared to January to August 2020.

Stopovers of container ships in Brazil by port | Jan/Aug 2020 to Jan/Aug 2021

Despite the drop in the year-on-year comparison, moorings, in general, grew slightly: 0.83% in July compared to the previous month. In the accumulated result for the first seven months of the year, there was a slight drop of 0.78% in moorings. In Santos, the drop was 1.52%.

See the chart below for container ship stopovers in Brazilian ports per week  as of January 2020:

Weekly container vessel calls at Brazilian ports | Jan 2020 to August 2021 (partial)

Source: DataLiner (To request a DataLiner demo click here)

Of the 18 ports analyzed by the Datamar team, only six registered an increase in the number of vessel calls in the first seven months of 2020 and 2021: Itaqui, Fortaleza, Navegantes, Suape, Vila do Conde, and Salvador. The Port of Imbituba remained stable and the others registered a drop in vessel calls.

Container Vessel Calls in Brazil by Port | Jan/July 2020 to Jan/July 2021

Source: DataLiner (To request a DataLiner demo click here)

In comparison with the previous month, however, the growth was even greater, at 8.11%. However, for the quarter, the number of vessel calls in 2020 and 2021 remain practically stable: 1863 in 2021 and 1861 in 2020, a growth of just 0.1%.

See the graph below for the monthly container vessel calls in Brazilian ports since January 2020:

Container Vessel Calls in Brazilian Ports per Week | Jan 2020 to March 2021

Source: DataLiner

Although the Port of Santos had the largest number of container vessel calls in the first quarter of 2021, the Port of Itaqui grew the most, by 57.14%. It is worth remembering that on April 9th, 4 areas of the port were auctioned for fuel handling. The Port of Fortaleza registered a 33.33% growth in the number of vessel calls in the first quarter.

Container Vessel Calls in Brazil by Port | Jan 2020 to March 2021

Source: DataLiner (To request a DataLiner demo, click here)

In the next few days, a blank sailing is forecast during week 16 for the SAMWAF service (Trade Africa).

Despite the slight drop in February, when compared to the first two-month periods of 2020 and 2021, the drop was greater: 3.28%, since last January, 37 fewer container vessel calls were recorded in Brazilian ports compared to January 2020.

Container Vessel Calls in Brazilian Ports per Week | Jan 2020 to February 2021 

Source: DataLiner

Comparison between ports

When comparing ports, we can see an uneven movement. While the Port of Navegantes showed an increase of 15.12% in the number of vessel calls, the Port of Rio de Janeiro had a drop of 17.02%. In Santos, the drop was 3.41%.

According to the Santos Port Authority, the drop in the number of berths does not mean less cargo handled. For example, 342 ships docked at the Port of Santos in January, between container carriers and others, 9.5% below January 2020. Despite this, the total volume of cargo was 9.18 million tons, a result that was 10, 5% higher than in 2020 (8.31 million) and 1.4% higher than the record for the month of January, registered in 2018 (9.05 million tons), characterizing the increase in the volume of cargo per vessel.

The same situation was also observed in January at the Port of Itajaí. Heder Cassiano Moritz, General Director of Logistics Operations at the Porto Superintendence, explains that even with a 5% drop in the handling of TEU, there was a 6% increase in tonnage.

“Despite the reduction in the number of stopovers and containers, we move more tonnage, that is, we move more full containers and more loaded ships. It is very important for us to highlight this growth in the load per stopover, which was 22% compared to last year”.

He points out that more heavily loaded ships are a trend that is increasingly consolidated among shipowners: “The reduction in the number of calls should be maintained, not only in public berths but in the complex in general”.

Container Vessel Calls in Brazil by Port | Jan 2020 and Feb 2021

Source: DataLiner (To request a DataLiner demo click here)

For March, according to a survey by Datamar, there is a blank sailing programmed at FEAS (Fareast) – SSA service (Sino South America), in week 13.