Santos Brasil’s quarterly earnings surged, thanks mainly to its container and general cargo terminals moving higher volumes.
The Sao Paulo-based owner of terminals reported BRL 171.7m ($31.2m) in net income for the second quarter, up 82% year over year. Total revenue rose by 38% to BRL 702.8m.
Containerised commodity exports to global markets remained sound, while organic growth in imports and cabotage transportation followed an increasing trend, the company said.
Santos Brasil’s bottom line rose sharply from a year earlier primarily due to container volumes climbing 23.4% to 369m teu units in the second quarter.
The port processed larger volumes of long-haul cargo, which was up 23%. That reflected a 36.1% jump in imports and 25.8% growth in exports.
Second-quarter revenue for its containers & general cargo division increased 47.4% year over year to BRL 543.8m.
Chief financial officer Daniel Pedreira Dorea told the results call: “The second quarter of the year presented a strong pace of growth in the volumes operated by the company, something we had already observed in the first month of the year and that we trust will be maintained until the end of 2024, which is seasonally the best quarter of the year.
“In July, we hit a record of handling in Brazil, where we reached 120,000 containers in Tecon Santos. This is thanks to the investments for the increase of capacity we carried out a year ago.”
The Tecon Santos container terminal is undertaking an ambitious expansion and modernisation project, with a total investment of $520m to increase annual capacity to 3m teu.
During the second quarter, container volume there grew 24% compared with a year earlier, with a 33.8% year-over-year increase in long-haul, owing to higher exports of coffee, sugar, cotton and frozen meat, as well as a growth in imports of chemicals, capital goods, plastics and consumer goods.
Four new regular services started operating at Tecon Santos, including two long-haul services from liner operators MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company and Zim, one cabotage service from Norcoast and one feeder service from CMA CGM.
This was in addition to the inaugural call of the new Latamax, a ship with capacity of 14,000 teu, which has become part of a long-haul service from CMA CGM and Cosco Shipping Line to and from Asia, Santos Brasil said.
The company views the second half of 2024 positively as it approaches its import peak season, but also due to efficiency gains arising from the operational leverage of its assets, mainly at Tecon Santos.
“Santos Brasil will intensify investments in the Port of Santos, Brazil’s main port complex, in order to strengthen its competitive advantages and absorb the growth of the container market, promoting the competitiveness of its customers,” the company said.
