BRASILIA, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Strong
global demand for Brazil's big corn and soybean crops has two to three times
more ships lined up to load at its two main ports than a year earlier and to
complicate loadings a six-hour dock workers strike is set for Friday.
Fifty-nine ships were waiting to
load grain at Santos port on Thursday versus 29 a year ago, data from SA
Commodities/Unimar showed. At the other main grain port, Paranagua, 82 ships
were waiting compared with 31 ships this time last year.
The long queues, which are costly
for shippers, reflect strong demand after drought reduced output in the top soy
producer the United States and No. 2 grower Brazil last year.
They are set to get longer still
when the harvest peaks next month. Port worker strikes set for Friday and
Tuesday are exacerbating what is already expected to be one of the most
challenging seasons ever for grain logistics in Brazil.
Brazil is expected to export a
record soybean crop and large sugar and corn crops, but has a shortage of road
haulage and port capacity.
The management at Paranagua, the
most important grain port in Brazil, said in a Thursday statement it was
"apprehensive" about the two work stoppages because of the intense
shipping traffic, even though the strikes are to last just six hours each.
"At a time when the flow of
bulk is large because of the harvest, stoppages like this can create all kinds
of
problems and losses," said Luiz Henrique Dividino, superintendent at
the port authority of Paranagua.
Dock workers are striking to protest
forthcoming changes to regulations governing port operations, which they say
will lead to wage cuts and job losses by ending the obligation for terminals to
hire workers through a centralized agency.
The government says the rule changes
are needed to boost competitiveness as it seeks to attract billions of dollars
in investment to expand port capacity to cope with burgeoning commodity
exports.
The dock workers, represented by the
umbrella union Forca Sindical, have not ruled out longer stoppages later on to
prevent the changes being passed in Congress. Friday's strike will begin at 7
a.m. local time and end at 1 p.m.
Isis Markarian, a representative at
shipping agency SA Commodities/Unimar at Santos port, said the strike was
unlikely to have much effect on operations there since few laborers were
involved in the bulk loading of ships via conveyor belt.
Several commodity trading houses
with their own port operations were also switching over to bulk loading of
grain instead of sugar which might help clear some of the growing backlog, she
said.
