Ports and Terminals

Suape Port starts works to increase pier productivity

Jun, 16, 2021 Posted by Ruth Hollard

Week 202125

Works to level the channel bottom will restore the original depth of nine berths at the Port of Suape. Using a tugboat with a coupled plow, some high points of clayey-sandy material, called deep-bottoms, will be removed, reestablishing the depth of -15.5 m on berths 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 that they operate containers, general cargo, vehicles, bagged sugar, wheat, and other cargoes.

Liquid bulk piers 1 and 2, which handle chemical products, fuels, and oil derivatives, will undergo the same intervention. The services are expected to last three months, in the order of R$ 2.6 million funded by the port’s own resources. The works start in the next few days.

Upon completion of the work, operating gains will vary by berth, but the largest is expected to be -3.9 m at Pier 3. Another benefit is being able to use the entire length of the berth, for example, to moor two smaller ships in a row. Currently, due to the unevenness of some points on the bottom, the vessel is centered on the berth. With the intervention, the piers will have the same depth of -15.5 m.

“This work is very important for us to increase our operational gains. By restoring the depth, we recovered part of the capacity we had in the piers. Every centimeter of extra draft means more potential load to be handled”, explains Suape’s CEO, Roberto Gusmão.

The leveling of the bottom will be performed with a tow pulling a plow, a piece that weighs about two tons. The plow will dismantle the existing high-bottoms next to the piers and piers, forming a flat and uniform seabed platform. Currently, the deepest berths are the oil piers PGL 3A and PGL 3B, which operate crude oil from the Abreu e Lima Refinery and have a depth of -17.7 m.

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