Brazil Sugar at Ports Drop 14% as Copersucar Shipments Canceled

(Businessweek) – The amount of sugar waiting to be loaded at ports in top producer Brazil fell 14 percent over the past week, with three vessels set to load at the Copersucar terminal canceled after a fire last week, shipping data showed.

Sugar waiting to be loaded at the ports of Suape, Maceio, Vitoria, Paranagua and Santos, the country’s biggest, amounted to 1.18 million metric tons as of yesterday, e-mailed data from Recife, Brazil-based Williams Servicos Maritimos Ltda. showed. That’s down from about 1.36 million tons a week earlier.

A fire that broke out at Copersucar’s terminal in Santos on Oct. 18 destroyed 180,000 tons of sugar and affected all of the company’s six warehouses. Loading conveyor belts that carry the sugar, shiploaders and “relevant parts of the civil structures” escaped damage, Paulo Roberto de Souza, chief executive officer at Copersucar, said in Sao Paulo on Oct. 22.

Vessels Kate, Nord Summit and Nord Traveller scheduled to load at Copersucar’s terminal are canceled, according to Williams Brazil data. The ships were set to carry 122,800 tons of sugar. Vessel Anarita, which was set to load 40,000 tons at the terminal, will now be filled at the Port of Paranagua, the country’s second-biggest, the data showed.

Copersucar’s warehouses at the port of Santos have capacity to store 300,000 tons of sugar. Exports from the company’s terminal account for 25 percent of all of the sweetener shipped out of Santos, according to Codesp, the state-controlled port operator. The terminal loads an average 10 sugar ships a month, Nicolle de Castro, an analyst at SA Commodities in Santos, said by phone yesterday.