Jun 11, 2020
Port of Paranagua Loads Largest Vessel ever to Dock at the Port
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
The largest vessel ever to dock at the Port of Paranagua in southern Brazil was recently loaded with 103,000 tons soybean meal - also a record amount for the port.
The vessel, Pacific South, docked at berth 214 in the Export Corridor on Monday. The vessel is 292 meters long and 45 meters wide. This is 38 meters longer than the prior record large vessel that docked at the port a little more than a year ago. Most grain vessels at the Port of Paranagua are in the range of 199 to 229 meters long with a capacity of approximately 60,000 tons. The Pacific South vessel, which is registered in the Marshal Islands, will transport its load of soybean meal to Amsterdam.
The soybean meal used to fill the vessel will be drawn from three different grain terminals with 84,000 tons from Coamo, 15,000 tons from Cotriguacu, and 4,000 tons from public silos. The Port of Paranagua has the capacity to load grain or soybean meal onto a vessel from eleven different grain terminals.
The 103,000 ton capacity of the Pacific South vessel is the equivalent of 3,400 semi-trucks and it beats the previous record capacity of a vessel at the port by 13,000 tons set a little more than a year ago. Generally, grain vessels at the Port of Paranagua have 5-7 holds, but the Pacific South has 9 holds. If the weather cooperates and there is no rain, it will take five days to load the vessel.
The Export Corridor at the Port of Paranagua consists of three berths with two shiploaders per berth. In recent years, the port has invested in larger and higher capacity ship loaders capable of loading larger vessels such as the Pacific South.