Mar 29, 2018
Barge Operator to Truck Grain out of Mato Grosso to the Amazon
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
The company, Hidrovias do Brasil, is offering a new service for their clients in Mato Grosso. They have started a ground transportation system that will provide truck transportation services for farmers and grain companies in Mato Grosso. The trucks will transport grain from central and northern Mato Grosso to their barging operation at the Port of Miritituba on the Tapajos River. From there, the grain will be barged down the Amazon to their export facility at the Port of Vila do Conde near the mouth of the Amazon River.
They feel the advantages of this service will include: clients will no longer have to do their own contracting with trucking companies, clients will not have to verify and certify cargos at either port, and they will not have to be concerned if a shipment is delayed along the way.
Initially in 2018, the company expects to contract 5,000 to 10,000 trucks with an average capacity of 40 tons each to move 200,000 to 400,000 tons of grain in this manner. In 2019, their goal is to transport 600,000 tons of grain for their clients. The company expects to barge a total of 3.5 million tons of grain in 2018 from their facility at Miritituba to their export facility near the mouth of the Amazon.
The company is also investing R$ 90 million on a new pier and warehouse at Miritituba in order to bring in larger volumes of imported fertilizers to their barging facility. That way, both the barges and trucks will not have to return empty.
In 2017 the company imported approximately 200,000 tons of fertilizers. They are expecting to increase that to 400,000 tons of imported fertilizers in 2018. When the new facilities are up and running, they are expecting to transport 1.2 million tons of fertilizers by 2020. Several major fertilizer importers have already contracted with Hidrovias do Brasil and others have expressed interest.
The company feels this will optimize their operations and bring economic advantages for their clients. Certainly, this would significantly reduce the cost of transporting fertilizes to Mato Grosso compared to trucking the fertilizers from the Port of Paranagua in southern Brazil.