After 15 years, the Port of São Sebastião, located on the north coast of São Paulo, has resumed its sugar transporting operations. According to the State Secretary for Logistics and Transport, João Octaviano Machado Neto, a partnership was established with Raízen to enable this type of operation. Operations began again in May with a shipment of 15,000 tons of sugar to Gambia, Africa. Another 75,000 tons of bagged sugar is also scheduled to be shipped to Africa and the Mediterranean through a partnership with Raízen. Expectations for 2020 are that the port will handle 250,000 tons of bagged sugar and 250,000 tons of bulk sugar. It is worth remembering that in the last few months the average waiting time for loading ships with sugar at the Port of Santos has been up to 45 days, which may have led companies to seek new alternatives to export their goods. In the past three months, most of the global sugar market has turned to Brazil, which is producing record volumes of the commodity. Mills have given priority to sugar over ethanol after the Brazilian fuel market had a drop in demand due to social isolation measures related to the coronavirus pandemic. The following graph shows Brazilian sugar exports on a monthly basis, with emphasis on the ports with the greatest movement of the commodity: In the Port of São Sebastião, the general cargo movement grew 3.6% during the pandemic. From March to May this year, 144,000 tons of cargo were transported, whereas during the same period last year 139,000 tons were shipped.
Source: Valor Econômico