Activities resume after fire at Brazil's Paranagua port

A fire interrupted activities in the eastern corridor of the Paranaguá port in Brazil Friday afternoon, but the operational impact was limited, with all berths resuming activities Saturday afternoon, the port authority said.

“Operations in the export corridor were resumed at 1300 Saturday (February 24), with export operations in berths 212 and 213 and one import operation on berth 214,” the port authority Portos do Parana said in a note.

Although port activities in the eastern corridor resumed on Saturday, Portos do Parana said maintenance works on the equipment that was affected by the fire were ongoing during the weekend “aiming at fully reestablishing operations in the coming days.”

The fire started in a conveyor belt and led to the suspension of docking activities and the unmooring of two vessels in the three berths that form the eastern corridor on Friday.

Portos do Parana told AgriCensus Monday the fire did not cause any delays in shipping schedules and that even the two vessels unmoored Friday were immediately docked on other berths to resume loading activities.

The port of Paranagua handled 14.3 million mt of soybeans and 4.2 million mt of corn in 2023, 14% and 8% of Brazil’s total exports, respectively.

According to line-up data from shipping company Cargonave, 23 vessels are scheduled to depart from the eastern corridor during the coming two weeks loaded with 834,712 mt of beans, 245,170 mt of soymeal and 67,000 mt of wheat.

Export logistics in Brazil are not particularly strained at the moment with low waiting times at ports and subdued demand for land freight in the interior market as farmers have been somewhat reluctant to sell soybeans since the beginning of the harvest.

Such outlook and the quick partial resumption of activities in the eastern corridor contributed to the limited impact of the incident on the throughput of agricultural exports.