SAO PAULO -- A blaze destroyed a warehouse holding 50,000 tonnes of sugar operated by Cargill Inc and Biosev on Monday at Brazil's Santos port, its third major sugar fire in a year.
Firefighters had the blaze in warehouse 3 under control at the largest port in Latin America and kept it from spreading to a second warehouse, according to a spokesman for Codesp, the port authority. There were no reports of injuries.
The terminal, known as TEAG sugar terminal, is a 50-50 joint venture between Cargill and Biosev, the sugar unit of Louis Dreyfus Commodities.
Cargill said in a statement that approximately 50,000 tonnes of sugar had been stored in that warehouse. A second warehouse and TEAG's shiploading operations were not affected. The terminal has storage capacity of 110,000 tonnes and has insurance for its buildings, equipment and stocks, Cargill said.
Biosev said in a separate statement that about half of the 50,000 tonnes of sugar were its property and that it had already found alternative storage capacity.
The local fire department said the cause of the blaze was not yet known. Santos is located in southeastern Brazil, a region suffering its hottest, driest weather in decades.
Codesp said in August it was reviewing security procedures with waterway agency Antaq to try to prevent more fires after a blaze damaged Cosan SA's Rumo terminal. The port authority on Monday did not respond to questions about the review process.
Bruno Zaneti, risk consultant for sugar and ethanol at INTL FC Stone in Campinas, Brazil, said the unprecedented weather had caused some sugar mills to take the unusual measure of spraying water on sugar stocks to increase humidity and lessen the chances of fire.
