Ports, terminals & related infrastructure
Damage assessment continues at Itajai. Of its three berths totaling 700m, 400m will require rebuilding and warehouses 2 and 3 are to be demolished. Berth 4 is apparently undamaged and can support MHCs. ATPM’s Teconvi terminal pier “Zero” is in the final stages of construction and likewise apparently undamaged. R$350m of federal funds are being made available for dredging and repairs to approximately 750m of quay. Authorities cautiously saying the port may be partially operational by mid-December (including 200m of new berth Zero) but that it may take twelve to eighteen months to get back to “normal”. Across the river at Navegantes, Portonave draft was reportedly reduced to 7.5m and may require several weeks of dredging to be usable. The first emergency-hired hopper dredger should be on site in a week. Hundreds of containers in depots were damaged. Maersk alone had over 1,000 reefer units stocked inland. The rain was concentrated along the coast; there is little damage inland, where most chicken and pork farms are located. The immediate problem for those exporters is getting their cargoes to port and, then, for the terminals to find ways of accommodating the additional cargo within their reefer plug capacity. After the floods, the challenge has been to attend to the 40,000teu (23,000 units) a month of deepsea cargo moving through Itajai and Portonave which, combined, represent Brazil’s second container port.

Santos Brasil announced investments of R$ 283 (US$120m) in Tecon Imbituba, through widening and lengthening the quay to 660m, dredging to 15m and purchase of four double-lift gantries as well as two MHCs (perhaps transferred?).

Brazil foreign trade
The latest weekly update of US$ exports and imports from MDIC (Ministry of Development Industry and Commerce) reflects not just the general downturn, but also the impact of no movement through Itajai.

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