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Portonave Offers New Option for Route to Asia

Published May 24, 2011 3:53 PM by The Maritime Executive

In May, Portonave S.A. – Terminais Portuários de Navegantes will become th only terminal in the south of Brazil to receive ships from a new Asian line run by PIL, NYK, "K" Line and Hyundai and calling at Ningbo, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Singapore and Kelang. 

The cargo vessels, of the so-called NHX/SSA/AESA–2 line, have an average length of 221.2 meters and a width of 30 meters, with a capacity of 2,824 TEUs (20-foot containers).]

The existing NHX/SSA/AESA line already stops at Portonave on a weekly basis, and the new NHX/SSA/AESA–2 line will initially call once every two weeks. This service is offered due to the high volume of imports from Asia and increasing exports to the continent. 

With the Chinese market opening its doors to Brazilian pork in early April, boosting the country’s exports to China, exporters now have yet another option to ship their products via Portonave. Another distinguishing feature of the Terminal is its frozen cargo facilities, including a yard with 1,200 reefer outlets and the integrated services of Iceport - Terminal Frigorífico de Navegantes S.A., a fully automated cold store, with a storage capacity of 16,000 pallets, equivalent to 18,000 tonnes of frozen cargo.

Given the buoyant market and the weak dollar, imports will also pick up steam and the additional NHX/SSA/AESA–2 service will greatly facilitate the purchase of Asian products. Within this scenario, Portonave becomes even more attractive to importers, because in addition to the tax incentives from the Santa Catarina government, clients have the option of having their load freed in the primary zone, thereby reducing costs, i.e. goods are cleared in the Terminal’s container yard and do not need be moved to another location.

“The new line will generate business opportunities for the Terminal, as well as for customers, because we were operating with two lines to Asia and now we have three. The idea is that the new service will call on a weekly basis, thus tripling the amount of weekly stopovers in Navegantes by Asian-bound ships”, declared Portonave’s Chief Operational Superintendent, Rene Duarte.