Fire Out of Control in Brazilian Port, marex

Usina Costa Pinto, Cosan, Piracicaba, Sao Paulo, Brazil

A fire that started Sunday afternoon at the warehouses of Brazil’s largest sugar producer Cosan in Santos Port continues to burn out of control, the local fire department said. The fire broke out at Cosan’s Rumo sugar terminal at 4.30 pm local time Sunday and 12 fire trucks from the surrounding area were still trying to bring it under control, Sargent Rodrigues of the Santos Fire Department told Reuters.

Last October Cosan’s rival Copersucar, Brazil’s largest sugar trader, lost nearly all of its newly expanded sugar export terminal to fire. The loss of Copersucar’s five warehouses and its 10-million-tonne-a-year export capacity, which are still not fully repaired, quickly sent sugar futures prices rising. 

Copersucar is right next door to Rumo’s export terminal, which has a 12 million tonne a year capacity for shipping bulk and bagged sugar. Copyright Reuters 2014.