Ports

There are three maritime ports along the Santa Catarina coast: Itajaí, São Francisco do Sul and Imbituba. They are well equiped and there are regular shipping lines between Santa Catarina and the principal world ports. Combined, the ports handle some 14 million tons per year. Port of Itajai is the nation’s third largest port (and thirteenth in Latin America and in the Caribbean) in container handling. Responsible for 16,7% of the nation’s operation with containers, Santa Catarina is the only state with three representatives on the ranking of the 15 principal ports in this area, as São Francisco do Sul occupies the 6th place and the port of Imbituba is in 15th.

Port of São Francisco do Sul

This is Santa Catarina’s main grain handling port and mostly handles exports. It is administered by the Government of the State of Santa Catarina, and can receive vessels of up to 12 meters draft. The access channel is 9.3 km long and 150 meters wide. There are five loading berths at dockable wharves of 975 meters and three internal warehouses with a capacity of 78 thousand m3.

This port’s facilities allow handling of solid and liquid bulk goods, and general and containerized cargo. It handles approximately 8 million tons per year, more than half of the volume of cargo that passes through the state’s ports. Some of the exported items are soy grains, furniture, soy bran, motor compressors and electric motors. It is located on the state’s northern coast, 215 kilometers from the Santa Catarina capital and 580 kilometers from São Paulo.

Port of Itajaí

Located 98 kilometers to the north of Florianópolis, it is the nation's third largest port in container exports. The port of Itajaí has berths at dockable wharves of 740 meters, with depths of 10 meters, which can handle three ships at one time. Its facilities occupy more than 15 thousand m² of sheltered area to stock the products and 38 thousand m² unsheltered for container storage. It is responsible for 80% of all exports in Santa Catarina and 4% of the national total. The main products exported from itajaí are frozen chicken and meat, followed by lumber and its derivatives, floor and wall tiles, motors and its accessories, paper, tobacco, apples, textiles and cargo on wheels (buses, tractors and harvesters). In recognition for the quality of its supply of basic infrastructure of services and operations it was awarded the ISO 9001:2000 certification, the first conceded to a port authority in Brazil. It is managed by the Itajaí City Hall.

Port of Imbituba

Administered by the private sector, it is one of the principal foundations of the economy in southern Santa Catarina. A 300-meter long dock, land area of 1.55 million m2 and water area of 750 thousand m2 allow vessels with a draft of up to 10-meters to operate along its four berths. It has an ample amount of cargo storage space and excellent natural conditions.

The port moves over 1 million tons of goods annually, ranging from shoes, tobacco, wheat, pottery, cotton, caustic soda, coal coke, sugar, salt, fertilizer, and chicken meat. With the return of the container lines, the volume is expected to increase to its capacity, which registered 1.4 million tons in 2006. It is located on the South coast, 90 km from the capital.

Ports in Santa Catarina

	São Franscisco do Sul	Itajaí	Imbituba
Container traffic (millions of t/year – 2006)	7.9	4.58	1.4
Main Products	Soybeans, furniture, soy meal, electric motors and motor compressors.	Frozen chicken and meat, followed by lumber and its derivatives, floor and wall tiles, motors and its accessories, paper, tobacco, apple, textiles and cargo on wheels.	Shoes, tobacco, ceramics, cotton, caustic soda, coke, sugar, salt, fertilizers and chicken meat.