Europe and the Mediterranean are increasingly overtaking the United States as the main container trade for exports from the East Coast of South America (ECSA), the number of services and vessels deployed between South America and Europe and the Mediterranean has increased over the past four years, particularly from Brazil, with shipping lines launching new services and deploying more vessels along the corridor. However, an analysis of shipping data shows that despite the increase in capacity on the South America-North America route, its average vessel size still lags behind that of Europe and the Mediterranean corridor.
The latest entry carriers include Ocean Network Express (ONE), COSCO Shipping and its Hong Kong-based subsidiary Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), which will launch from Montevideo on September 16 the weekly ecsa-Euro-Mediterranean service, targeting South American exports.
OOCL said the new service is designed to meet demand for reefer containers from South America's east coast to Europe, offering a 16-day transit time from Rio de Janeiro to Rotterdam.
The complete rotation is Rotterdam-London Gateway-Hamburg-Antwerp-Lisbon-Algeciras-Santos-Paranagua-Montevideo-Buenos Aires-Itapoa-Paranagua-Santos-Rio de Janeiro-Algeciras-Rotterdam.
Brazilian exports "booming"
According to trade data, the value of Brazilian exports to European and Mediterranean countries is growing faster than to the United States, and Europe's share of Brazilian exports is increasing.
Freight forwarders pointed out that the new service will provide shippers with more choices, while at the same time the shipping season may cause capacity constraints, for perishable products to provide additional capacity.
Rogerio Fadigas, managing director of the Brazilian Cargofast Logistics, said that Brazilian exports have been booming and only Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd, CMA CGM and Mediterranean Shipping have been on this trade route for many years. Due to the seasonality of goods, including commodities such as fruit and sugar, space is sometimes scarce. So I believe that the new all freight forwarders are very happy that we will have more choices and new tonnage space.
Deployed in the European/Mediterranean trade vessels rise
According to container traffic data Transmodal by Antonella Antonella Tedoro, senior Transmodal adviser at According to Brazilian government data, containerized exports include meat, coffee and industrial equipment. Europe and the Mediterranean are shifting in importance for Brazilian exports compared to the United States. Statistics show that Brazil exported $48.7 billion billion worth of goods to Europe in 2022, accounting for 14.6 percent of total exports, compared with $35.9 billion million last year, accounting for 12.5 percent.
By contrast, last year Brazil sent about 37.6 billion dollars worth of goods to the United States, accounting for 11.7 percent of total exports, up from 10.5 percent in 2021.
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