Salvador pegged as Brazils least efficient port

Local reports add that ships can also wait up to eight hours at the outer anchorage before securing a berthing place, rising to 24 hours in peaks.

These hold-ups have prompted many shipping lines to avoid calling at the port altogether. This has meant that local agricultural producers and companies linked to the Camaçari petrochemical plant are forced to use precarious road links to divert cargo to other ports, including Santos, which is 2,000 km to the south.