Drought in the Amazon brings uncertainty to the industry at Christmas – 10/20/2023 – Market

The stocks of industries in Manaus will be able to supply Brazil on Black Friday, but there is uncertainty for Christmas due to the extreme drought that affects the transport of cargo through the Amazon rivers, assesses Marcello Di Gregorio, director of Super Terminais.

Super Terminais is a private port terminal that operates in the capital of Amazonas. According to Di Gregorio, the drought of historic proportions is preventing ships from arriving in Manaus due to draft limitations (part of the vessels that are submerged).

Therefore, companies are using ferries to transport goods. The issue is that ferries can only transport 10% to 15% of the ships’ cargo capacity, says the businessman. This makes transportation slower and increases production costs in the industry.

“We haven’t received ships in Manaus for more than 30 days. The stocks from factories, industries, will be able to feed Brazil, retail, wholesale, for Black Friday, but for Christmas we still don’t know how it will go It is a worrying situation, without a doubt”, declares Di Gregorio.

The Manaus Free Trade Zone is known for housing industries that manufacture products such as motorcycles, electronic devices and household appliances, including cell phones, televisions and air conditioning.

According to Di Gregorio, companies took into account the history of little rain in the region in other years and reinforced their stocks to avoid shortages of inputs before Black Friday. The level of drought this year, however, has been frightening the local population.

The drought caused historic minimum levels in parts of the Negro, Solimões, Amazon and Madeira rivers, as shown by Sheet. The conclusions are from data compiled or produced by the Port of Manaus, the SGB (Brazilian Geological Service) and the Civil Defense of Amazonas.

Di Gregorio believes that a positive sign is the return of rain in recent days in the region. “Depending on the rain, around November 30th, or the first week of December, we will have to wait until we start receiving ships”, he projects.

According to Di Gregorio, ships arriving in Manaus require a draft of 8 to 12 meters, on average, while ferries have a maximum draft of three meters.

On Thursday (19), Amazonas had 59 of the 62 municipalities in an emergency situation due to the drought, according to a bulletin released by the state government. Manaus was on that list.

In addition to the difficulty of river transport, the drought also caused a series of other impacts in the Amazon. Death of porpoises, isolation of communities, lack of water, interruption of energy production and health problems are examples of these consequences.

“What we need is to plan better, talk to the public authorities, talk to the responsible bodies, to be able to mitigate this problem and not let it reach the scale it is today”, says Di Gregorio.