Strike hits Brazilian Santos port

Strike hits Brazilian Santos port
http://www.joc.com/print/3248751)
Rob Ward, Special Correspondent | Oct 02, 2015 5:43PM EDT print (http://www.joc.com/print/3248751)

Protesting dock workers brought parts of the Brazilian port city of Santos to a standstill yesterday after the Ecoporto Santos container terminal laid off 200 workers and set out plans to sack another 200 as it fights to stay competitive in the oversaturated container terminal sector of South America’s biggest port.

The port workers union Settaport, which represents 70 percent of the facility's 1,200 employees, organized the strike. More than 150 dock workers blockaded the road outside the Ecoporto Santos facility and the the main road from Sao Paulo in to Santos, causing a 6-mile line of trucks to form before the union agreed to sit down with the terminal’s managers to find a more conciliatory solution to necessary cutbacks.

Ecoporto is hemorrhaging money after losing around five regular calls over the past year and seems likely to lose its last call. Volumes have fallen from well over 300,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units per year to a forecast of 100,000 TEU for 2015.

The truck line is said to have dissipated after talks resumed.

Francisco Nogueira, the president of Settaport said Ecoporto Santos had been laying off stevedores and other workers since January but the firing of another 200 “without consultation” was too much.

Shippers in Santos have already been struggling in recent weeks to deal with strikes by customs officials, and
(http://www.joc.com/port-news/south-american-ports/port-santos/port-labor... chicken-exporters_20150929.html).

“Settaport proposed negotiations and some ideas to try and avoid such redundancies, such as contract suspensions, a readjustment of shifts or even a reduction in wages so the company could have more time to find some more customers and avoid these layoffs,” Nogueira told local journalists. “After our strike action the company has now signaled a willingness to negotiate in this direction.”

The union said that of 1,200 staff employed by Ecoporto Santos at the beginning of the year, 100 have been fired, 200 have been told they will also have to go, and there are plans for a further 200 to lose their jobs before Christmas.

Ecoporto Santo has seen its Santos market share fall from 13 percent in 2007 to just 5 percent for the first eight months of this year, according to the latest figures from the port authority, Codesp.

The terminal is about to lose one of its last regular services: the SSA East Coast of South America to Far East service of K Line, Yang Ming, Hyundai Merchant Marine and Pacific International Line, with slot offerings for Zim Integrated Services Line, Evergreen Line and Cosco.

With almost no traffic of its own, the terminal is preparing to offer storage services to the nearby BTP terminal and Libra Terminais. There are also growing rumors that international operators that still do not have a presence in Santos – namely PSA International and Hutchison Port Holdings – have been talking to Ecoporto about a possible takeover or joint venture.

One Ecoporto Santos manager spoke to JOC.com just over a week ago about the “very difficult situation.” He said, “We are trying so hard to find new business, but the Brazilian economy is struggling and so are we. Several of the carriers had blank sailings in recent weeks because of overcapacity and this is supposed to be our peak season. I don’t know where this will all end.”

Contact Rob Ward at rcward788@btinternet.com (mailto:rcward788@btinternet.com).