Jamal Al Ghurair, managing director of Al Khaleej Sugar, told Reuters that the successful completion of dredging to create a 15-metre draught would enable bigger vessels to load greater quantities of bulk raw sugar and cut costs.
"We are looking for the Brazilians to go to a 15-metre draught. For the last eight years the port authorities are promising, 'Next year, Next year, it will happen.' It has not happened so far," Ghurair said in an interview.
"We want to have better load rates. We want to have better storage capacity at the port."
Ghurair said that his objective in lobbying the authorities at the port terminals was to lower his freight costs per tonne.
Santos is Latin America's largest port and Brazil's biggest sugar port.
Al Khaleej ships Brazilian raw sugar to the Dubai refinery and has a longstanding deal with cooperative Copersucar .
From time to time, Al Khaleej Sugar ships raw sugar from Brazil to other destinations.
The Copersucar terminal at Santos port has a draught of 12.20 metres.
The Dubai sugar refinery, one of the biggest in the world, has a production capacity of around 6,000 tonnes a day.
Al Khaleej Sugar exports to some 40 countries.
The Dubai refinery has no immediate expansion plans, Ghurair said.
He said he believed that some 300,000 tonnes of raws were held at the refinery currently.
Al Khaleej Sugar was studying the possibility of applying for the right to deliver raw sugar against the ICE exchange, Ghurair said.
"We have not made up our minds, so it is not easy for me to clarify why it should be this way or that way. It is premature at this stage." (Reuters)
