PARANAGUÁ, BRAZIL — The Port of Paranaguá announced on Dec. 10 that it had exceeded its daily grain load for the second time in 2015. On Dec. 9, the port had loaded 51,680 tonnes of soybeans onto a ship bound for China.

The Dec. 9 achievement is 2.3% higher than the previous record made on June 9, when 50,500 tonnes of soybeans was loaded within 24 hours.

"We had many days of rain in the last quarter,” said Luiz Henrique Dividino, chief executive officer of the Administration of Paranaguá Ports and Antonina (APPA). “It was enough that we had one good window of time for us to return the load with maximum agility, the result of an investment package we have made in recent years in the export corridor."

 In 2015, Paranaguá recorded 47% more rainfall than in 2014.

"Even so, the Port has hit the largest soybean movement mark in a single year, over 8 million tonnes in 2015," said Jose Richa Son, state secretary for Infrastructure and Logistics.

In the last four years, APPA has invested R$511 million in works for maintenance, expansion and improvement of Parana ports. In shiploaders, which saw a 33% productivity increase in the flow of grain, the port invested R$59 million.

All the cargo loaded at the time of the daily record was from the public port of Paranagua Silo. Throughout the year, the terminal handled 2.8 million tonnes, 50% more than in 2014 and registering the historical record of the silo.