Portonave performs the first night-departure maneuver with a 334-m vessel

The Port Authority of Santa Catarina authorized 50 special night-departure maneuvers from the port complex of Itajaí and Navegantes. The first operation took place on the night of December 8, at Portonave, with the Ever Lotus vessel, a 334 m LOA (measurement referring to a vessel maximum length) ship, belonging to shipowner Evergreen.

The maneuver required two pilots on board, who had already performed similar maneuvers before, and the use of a Portable Pilot Unit (PPU), a tool that helps the local pilot through the safe navigation of the vessel. In addition, four tugboats, whose power was regulated by the Port Authority, were used.

Two support vessels assisted in carrying out the maneuver, under the coordination of the Port Authority, by avoiding interference with traffic during the action. Overall, the whole activity took 45 minutes to be performed.
According to Luiz Pelusi Neto, of Evergreen Brasil’s Operations Department, the night maneuver is extremely important for shipowners these days, with the increasing capacity of ships operating in Brazil. Time is an important variable in calculating operating costs, and night navigation can speed up the entry or exit of a vessel by up to 12 hours. Taking the system of berthing windows into account, the damage can be enormous if the ship is unable to leave at night and loses the window to the next port. Waiting for berth availability can take days.

Portonave is the leader in container handling in southern Brazil in both import and export segments. On a national scale, the port of Navegantes stands out in second place in the container-handling ports ranking.