Santos is the largest port in Latin America. It handles nearly 97 Million tons per year (Mtpy) of cargo, visited by approximately 6000 vessels yearly. However, given the physical constraints of the canal, there is a disagreement regarding its capacity. In this paper, the capacity of Port of Santos and the access canal to the berth considering the current demand level, and its projection which may up to go over 15,000 vessels per year were evaluated. This evaluation was realized by the use of simulation taking into consideration the arrival, maneuver, berthing, loading/unloading, unberthing, and departure. We investigated two scenarios: (1) demand of 2011; (2) expansion from 2011 to 2032. The results of the simulation have shown that current average stay time is 71 h to 6000 ships per year. For the first scenario, it was verified that up to 8700 ships the observed impact in the average stay time was the increased to 75 h. The second scenario, when the current number of ships was increased to 12,480, the average time increases from 71 to 77 h in the ship stay. Finally, the canal capacity is 17,340 ships per year, but with a prohibitive stay time (about 602 h). All such figures indicate the high detail level reached in the model built, and at the same time how the generic concept applied in this study could be used to model another port which held similar characteristics as follows: 24 h operations, terminals widely spread along a canal, limitation no only on the depth of the canal (tidal constraints), but width constraints, limiting its capacity due crossing vessels in opposite directions (inbound/outbound).
Ship traffic capacity model for the largest port in Latin America
Mar Syst Ocean Technol
Marine Systems & Ocean Technology ; 15 , 1 ; 45-56
2020-03-01
12 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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