The Port of Itaqui should ship, by the end of this month, about 5.5 million tons of corn, soybeans and soybean meal, and the forecast is to close this first half of 2020 with a 12% growth in grain handling. Of this total, 3.7 million tonnes are for Tegram operations and the remainder represents the volume handled by the VLI terminal. Following the record grain harvest, fertilizer imports are expected to exceed 50% growth over the same period last year, with 1.2 million tons imported. “Based on our productivity indexes and the start-up of the second phase of Tegram in August, we are working with the expectation of a new historical record this year, surpassing the 11.2 million movements in 2019. And as of August, we have to a new level, with the capacity to move 19 million tons of grain per year ”, informs the President of Porto do Itaqui, Ted Lago. “The original Tegram project envisaged 5 million tons / year in each phase, but in 2019 we surpassed the 7 million mark, the majority of which is made up of soy. In the first months of this year our growth is almost 40% and in May 2020 alone we shipped almost 1 million in 14 ships ”, highlights Marcos Pepe Bertoni, head of operations at CGG Trading (one of the companies that make up the consortium) and a member of TEGRAM board.
Source: Porto do Itaqui (www.portodoitaqui.ma.gov.br)