South America Calling

Fire Rages at Brazil's Santos Port; Soy Still Loading

A huge six-day blaze at a fuel storage facility at the entrance of Brazil's Santos port is restricting access of trucks delivering grains and goods.

However, the port says grain shipments have yet to be disrupted with terminal soy stocks sufficient to keep loading soybeans for the next few days.

Huge plumes of smoke have hung over the city of Santos for nearly a week as firefighters struggle to quell the flames.

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As a result, police have restricted truck access to the right bank of the port, probably until Friday.

Luckily, the largest grain terminal, the TGG operation, run by ALL -- America Latina Logistica SA -- Amaggi and Bunge, is on the left bank, where access is not restricted.

Firefighters managed to extinguish the fire Monday at the six-tank complex with capacity for 214,000 barrels of gasoline and ethanol. But the fire reignited later in the day.

Santos is Brazil's biggest grain port, and April is traditionally a peak month for soy shipments.

Soybean exports were slow in the first quarter, down 28% on last year at 6.55 million metric tons, despite the arrival of a crop that is potentially 10% larger than last year.

The slow start is related to a late harvest, slow sales and a truck strike in February. However, shipments are expected to ramp up quickly now, especially with the recent jump in farmer soy sales stimulated by the devaluation of the real in March.

Farmer commitments of Brazil's soybean harvest moved forward seven percentage points to 50% as of April 2, according to Safras e Mercado, a local farm consultancy. That's still behind the 62% sold at the same stage last years.

(CZ)

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