Dec 08, 2020
U.S. Soybeans Unloaded at Port of Paranagua in Southern Brazil
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
The vessel Discoverer carrying 30,500 tons of U.S. soybeans was unloaded at berth 214 at the Port of Paranagua in southern Brazil starting last Thursday. Unloading is a rather slow process at just 6,000 tons per day, so the unloading was scheduled to take 5 days provided there was no rain.
The soybeans are removed from the vessel's hold with what is called a "grab" and then the soybeans are put into a hopper with a funnel that is used to fill trucks. It's a simple but slow operation similar to what is used for other bulk grains and fertilizers. The soybeans will be transported to crushers in the interior of Parana. While this is only a small amount of soybeans, it is the largest amount of soybeans imported into Brazil from the United States since 1997.
The Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries (Abiove) expects Brazil to import 1 million tons of soybeans in 2020, which would be the most since 2008. From January through October of 2020, Brazil has imported 625,000 tons of soybeans with 589,000 tons from Paraguay and 36,300 tons from Uruguay. In 2019, Brazil imported 125,000 tons of soybeans.