Following the recent fire at Terminal Acucareiro Copersucar (TAC) in Santos, Brazil, the London P&I Club has warned it could prove disastrous for shipping activity in the foreseeable future.
While a full assessment of the sugar terminal’s losses has yet to be made, it is understood that the fire destroyed around 180,000 tonnes of sugar.
Based on the current assessment, operations at TAC are expected to be down for at least six months.
Guilherme Pena, spokesperson for TAC, told Port Strategy TAC is working on a contingency plan following the accident, but was unable to comment further.
London P&I Club says given that the terminal capacity accounts for approximately one quarter of all sugar exported from Santos, the fire is likely to have a significant impact not only on vessels en route to load sugar, but also for the foreseeable future.
It is thought that vessels originally scheduled to load sugar from TAC will either be diverted to the Port of Paranagua (south of Santos) or lined up to load from other bulk cargo export facilities, such as Cosan, TEAG, TGG and TERMAG.
