ports

Railroad network in the Port of Santos: Understand how it is composed!

The Port of Santos is the busiest in the country. Used for export and import, the port in the coastal city handles a wide variety of items that are fundamental to the country's economy. For this to be possible, the rail network at the Port of Santos is essential, being one of the main means of transporting goods to the port.

Despite the existence of a large number of ports in Brazil, the Santos port has always been and continues to be the most used, precisely by the railroad network in the port of santos and by the easy access by the highways, which connect the city of São Paulo, the largest in the country.

Goods

Goods

Several data can explain why the Port of Santos is the most important for Brazil, mainly the movement of goods that arrive at the Santos port station.

Firstly, the Port of Santos is the first place in container handling and also in the handling of solid vegetable bulk. 

Each year, the number of containers handled by the Port of Santos increases. In 2019, for example, more than 45 million tons were handled in containers, a slightly higher number than the previous year, which also passed this mark, being the second largest port in container handling in Latin America. 

The profile of goods transported is placed in 3 categories: solid bulk, representing 49% of the movement, general cargo with 38% and liquid bulk with 13%. 

As it is a port used for both import and export, the products handled vary slightly. For export, for example, soy is the most important product, followed by crude oil, beef, sugar and others.

Regarding imports, insecticides, pesticides and herbicides, widely used in agribusiness, are the items that most arrive at the port. Then, car parts, petroleum oils, nitrogen compounds, fertilizers, medicines and other products complete this picture.

In total, the Port of Santos represents 28% of all port handling in the country, while the 2nd to 5th places represent 22%. All other ports represent the remaining 50%.

It is also important to highlight the economic partners in Brazil that benefit the most from the activity of the Port of Santos. 

Both in terms of origin and exit of goods, the countries most benefited are China, the United States, Germany, Japan and Argentina, in order of major importance for the country. 

Rail network

Rail network

For products to reach the Port of Santos, they need a wide rail network at the Port of Santos, both by road and by rail, these being the two main models of port transport.

In recent years, the road line accounted for 58% of goods transported to the port, while the railroad line accounted for around 36%.

In relation to the railroad network in the port of santos, it is a very extensive network and comprises a large percentage of the entire railroad network in the country. In total, about 67% of the Brazilian railroad network supplies the Port of Santos. 

In this system, there are 3 railroads that have a landing point at the Port of Santos, representing such an expressive number over the national railroad network. Are they:

  • MRS Logística;
  • Ferrovia Centro-Atlântica S.A. (FCA);
  • Rumo Logística;

The total number of wagons handled by these railroads reaches 1400 per day, in 100 km of internal accesses. The busiest goods are bulk sugar, soybeans, corn, soybean meal, cellulose and containers.

Speed of operations on the rail network in the Port of Santos

Speed of operations on the rail network in the Port of Santos

Due to the wide movement of the Port of Santos, the largest in the country, it is essential that transport, embarkation and disembarkation are as fast as possible, making the logistics of transporting cargo to the port as efficient as possible.

For this, it is necessary that there is a logistical organization very well worked on the railroad network in the port of santos. Regarding the railroad lines, which represent 67% of the entire railroad network in the country, there are, in addition to the railroads that land at the port, the lines that make connections with the main railroads.

During this transportation process, from the main lines, through the connecting lines and arriving at the ports, the goods need to be weighed several times to ensure that they are in accordance with the weighing of each line.

RUMO Logística alone, the main railroad in the country and the railroad network in the port of santos, handled, in 2020, about 8 thousand tons of cargo per day, taking soybeans, corn, sugar and other products to the port station.

Along these lines, there is a project to further increase the movement, almost doubling the amount of goods handled per day, from 8 thousand to 14 thousand tons.

Considering this wide movement, added to the other railroads that have access to the Port of Santos, there can be no errors or delays in the path of the railroads. 

Thus, in order to make weighing faster and more efficient, it is essential that the weighing at the weighing terminals is accelerated within the rail network in the port of santos, without the need to disengage wagons, which hinders the speed of the process.

In this sense, MASSA specializes in developing solutions so that the weighing of wagons and cargoes is as fast as possible, ensuring fluidity for transport, and enabling the loading and unloading of goods to be carried out within the indicated deadlines. 

Conclusion on railroad network in the Port of Santos

We can conclude with the article that the railroad network in the port of santos is one of the most important for the country, precisely because the port of Santos is the one that most moves goods in Brazil. As the 2 busiest port in Latin America, the amount of cargo arriving and leaving the port per year reaches almost 500 million tons, with several products entering and leaving the wagons, the most important in the national economy. Thus, the logistical and weighing work of the wagons during the journey on the railroads needs to be as effective as possible and, for this, MASSA has solutions that help in accelerating the process, bringing quality and efficiency to the railroads. 

Complementary sources: https://www.atribuna.com.br/eventos/portomar/rumo-planeja-opera%C3%A7%C3%A3o-de-trens-com-120-vag%C3%B5es-em-dire%C3%A7%C3%A3o-ao-porto-de-santos-1.103860#:~:text=O%20sistema%20ferrovi%C3%A1rio%20tem%201.989,em%20dire%C3%A7%C3%A3o%20ao%20cais%20santista.

http://www.brasilengenharia.com/portal/images/stories/revistas/edicao614/614_transporte.pdf

https://www.gov.br/infraestrutura/pt-br/centrais-de-conteudo/2-14-pdf

http://www.portodesantos.com.br/wp-content/uploads/Facts-Figures-light-3.pdf
http://apoiologistica.com.br/porto-de-santos-movimentou-10-milhoes-de-toneladas-de-mercadorias-em-fevereiro/
http://www.portodesantos.com.br/2021/02/11/spa-prorroga-prazo-de-consulta-publica-sobre-ferrovia-interna-do-porto-de-santos/
https://gbmx.com.br/transporte-de-carga-por-ferrovia-aumenta-42-no-porto-de-santos/

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