Sugar Port Backlog in Brazil Climbs to Record 107 Vessels Because of Rain
Sugar loading at Brazil’s main port is halted for the second consecutive day because of rain, increasing a record backlog of vessels waiting to transport the sweetener, said Copersucar SA.
The same vessels that were docked yesterday are still waiting to be loaded, a spokesman for Copersucar, who can’t be named because of company’s policy, said today.
Today there are 107 delayed vessels at six Brazilian sugar ports, up from 103 yesterday when rainfall started, according to Santos Associados Consultoria Ltda. and shipping company Unimar Agenciamentos Maritimos Ltda. The number of vessels waiting in the Santos Port rose to 74 from 70 yesterday.
Brazilian ports are struggling to keep up with demand for the sweetener. The country, the world’s biggest producer, accounts for 54 percent of the world’s exports, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Rainfall started yesterday and is expected to continue until Saturday, the port of Santos said on its website.
Raw sugar for October delivery fell 0.2 cent, or 1.2 percent, to 16.97 cents a pound on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. Before today, the price tumbled 36 percent this year on forecasts that rising output will end two years of supply deficits.
Copersucar, based in Sao Paulo, owns the second-largest sugar terminal at the port of Santos. It is a sugar and ethanol cooperative with 39 associate mills.
To contact the reporter on this story: Lucia Kassai in Sao Paulo at lkassai@bloomberg.net.
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