PARANAGUÁ, BRAZIL — The Port of Paranaguá announced on Jan. 5 its export corridor it has achieved its highest annual export mark. In 2015, 16.14 million tonnes were exported, an increase of 9.1% in 2014 and 1.1% higher than the previous record of 15.9 million tonnes reached in 2012.

The record was achieved even with 44% higher volume of rain than in the previous year and with the partial cessation of some berths for the installment of new shiploaders.

Between March and December of last year, four new shiploaders were installed and put into operation. The equipment can carry 33% more than the old shiploaders, increasing the speed of loading from 1,500 tonnes per hour to 2,000 tonnes per hour. R$59 million ($14.71 million) was invested to install the new shiploaders.

"The most important thing is that we can modernize the complex while we give vent to agricultural production,” said Luiz Henrique Splitting, director-chairman of the board of the Port of Paranaguá and Antonina (Appa). “We can serve our customers at the time the exchange rate and the external factors of the economy were favorable to them."

The export of the soybean harvest was the product with greatest movement. Throughout the year, 7.8 million tonnes of grain was exported, which represents a 21% increase compared to 2014. In all, 4.8 million tonnes of soybean meal were shipped, 3.3 million tonnes of maize and 203,000 tonnes of wheat.

Other daily and monthly export records of grain were surpassed. In June, at the height of the harvest, the port had the highest handling in a single month in its history, with 1.92 million tonnes exported and on Dec. 9, the daily record was broken with 51,700 tonnes loaded in one day in a single berth.