The Port of Santos has reached an agreement with a Chinese port terminal to facilitate soybean shipments on super bulk carriers.

The Santos Port Authority, the company responsible for the public infrastructure of the Port of Santos, signed a memorandum of understanding this Monday, July 20th, with the Chinese port of Ningbo Zhoushan, for studies on offshore transfer of soybean cargo already at the coast, an activity that would increase transportation efficiency. The objective is to allow "capesize" ships, which carry more than 150,000 tons, to receive cargo loaded at the Santos docks from smaller ships offshore. The largest bulk carriers that dock in Santos are 80,000 tons. Offshore transshipment would reduce freight costs and also increase the speed of the operation, since ships could return faster to receive new cargo. The agreement between Santos and Ningbo foresees studies to implement this shipping model, through a bilateral working group for information exchange. Ningbo Zhoushan is the largest port in the world in cargo tonnage, with an annual movement exceeding 1.4 billion tons/year. 

This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.