New Amazon-Based Grain Terminal to Begin Shipments in July

Brazilian logistics company, Hidrovias do Brasil announced that its new $384 million grain terminal located on the Tapajos river in Amazonian state of Para will begin exporting crops in July of this year, according to Reuters.

Multinational grain traders, Noble Agri and Nidera, as well as Brazil’s Multigrain, a subsidiary of Mitsui, have signed long-term contracts for use of the terminal according to Hidrovias chief executive, Bruno Serapião.

The terminal will begin receiving grain in February and March, and within the first five years of operation, the site is on pace to build the capacity to handle 6.5 million tons of grain per year, easing the bottlenecking at the country’s southern ports.

Brazil’s soybean growers will mainly truck their crops to the terminal along the BR-163 highway, to be then loaded onto barges destined for the coastal port of Barcarena. Despite the unfinished and difficult condition of the highway, transporting soybeans along this route will still be less expensive than trucking crops 1,243 miles from Mato Grosso to the country’s traditional ports of Santos and Paranagua in the southeast.

Hidrovias is not the first company to establish a northern export route through Brazil. Bunge has also established a terminal at Miritituba with the capacity to handle 4 million tons of crops per year for export through Barcarena.

“Transport by waterway is more competitive,” said Serapião reports CNBC, adding that construction on the BR-163 is expected to be finished by the end of this year.