Brazil's Port of Rio Grande, located in the city of the same name, in the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, should see record high activity in 2007. This is what the figures for the first four months of this year indicate.
During the period, there was an 8.7% increase in activity compared with the same months last year, with 6,565,722 tons transported.
Shipments of grain and ores, known as solid bulk cargoes, grew the most during the period, totaling 3.5 million tons and a 20% increase. In this segment, cereal exports accounted for 55.3% of total throughput. Totaling 1.940 million tons, cereal shipments increased by 27.7%.
Highlights in the segment included corn, which saw a 674.4% increase, totaling 432,300 tons, soy grain, which rose by 42% to reach 677,500 tons, rice, with an 11.7% increase and 83,200 tons shipped, and soy chaff, which increased by 9.2% to reach 482,900 tons.
Tooling Machinery
On another economic front, Brazilian producers of tooling machinery, used for manufacturing industrial parts, recorded revenues 7.4% higher in the first four months this year than in the same period last year.
The information was supplied by the Sectorial Chamber for Tool Machines at the Brazilian Machinery Manufacturers Association (Abimaq).
The revenue in the first four months of 2007 was US$ 328.9 million. With regard to foreign trade, the tool machine sector also recorded important figures from January through April. There were increases of 9.5% in exports (US$ 46.39 million) and 29% in imports (US$ 250.83 million).
Anba