Trump’s Trade War Boosts Brazil’s Porto do Acu

By Peter Millard and Dayanne Sousa

Apr 8, 2025 (Bloomberg) – Donald Trump’s trade war may have crushed global commodity prices, but it’s good news for one of Brazil’s largest ports, which is seeing an uptick in export volumes.

Porto do Acu in Rio de Janeiro state, the country’s No. 1 oil export port, was already investing in extra capacity to help resolve trading bottlenecks in agriculture and minerals. Tariff-induced distortions in global trade are now providing an additional boost, it says.

“When the threats started, demand started to rise,” João Braz, the port’s logistics director, said in an interview. “We’re in a really good position here.”

The gains highlight how quickly other nations can seize opportunities as the US and China become embroiled in a confrontation over trade. China last week said it planned to respond to Trump’s 34% tariff on its goods with an equal duty. Such a measure could give Brazilian exporters a unique advantage to steal market share.

Brazil is China’s largest trading partner and vies with the US for supremacy in global agricultural export markets. The South American country is also the region’s biggest oil producer, and one of the world’s largest exporters of iron ore, which is used to make steel.

The Trump administration said in February it planned to impose a 25% tariff on imports into the US of steel and aluminum. At that point, Porto do Acu saw a surge in demand for pig iron, a raw material used by US steelmakers, according to Braz. Porto do Acu’s pig iron exports in the first quarter were 50% higher than for all of 2024, he said.

Brazil is particularly well-placed to steal a march on the US in the soybean market. Brazil is the largest grower of the crop, and Agroconsult, an independent consultancy, expects domestic production to reach a record 171.3 million tons this year on favorable weather and an expansion of planted areas.

New data suggest shipments in other categories are gaining from global events. Brazilian exports of fresh and processed poultry reached 476,000 tons in March, industry group ABPA said Monday, up 19% from a year earlier. Poultry shipments to China gained by the same amount, while beef exports rose 20%.

However, Brazilian farmers are consistently growing more soybeans than the nation’s railways and ports can cope with. “There’s a big traffic jam on both ends,” Porto do Acu’s Chief Executive Officer Eugenio Figueiredo said in an interview.

Porto do Acu handles agricultural exports at a multipurpose terminal known as T-Mult and plans to double annual capacity there to 5 million tons in the coming years. The port is dredging the channel in front of T-Mult so that two Panamax ships can be loaded simultaneously.

For now, at least, the port says clients are stockpiling soybeans at its facilities with most of the inventory eventually destined for China.

A container shortage is also steering business to Porto do Acu. The targeting of commercial shipping by Iranian-backed Houthis militants in the Red Sea has slowed the flow of containers used by coffee exporters, for example. Brazil is the biggest coffee shipper and some sellers are currently packing the beans into super-sized bags at Porto do Acu to avoid long waits at other ports.

The port started shipping big bags of coffee in 2024 and expects an increase in volumes this year. It also plans to start handling sugar shipments.

“Clients need an alternative,” Braz said. “The system is bottlenecked.”

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