Arguably the world's greatest river system, the Amazon is navigable to large ships from the sea to Manaus, a distance of nearly 1,600 kilometres.
It's a similar distance to that from the Gulf of Mexico to Saint Louis on the Mississippi, but on that river deep-sea navigation ends at Baton Rouge, only about 400 kilometres up river. Due to ocean currents, the Amazon does not form a delta as do rivers like the Nile and Mississippi. As a result, silting in the main river channel is minimal and dredging is not required.
At Manaus, the Rio Negro river joins the Rio Solimões to form the Amazon. Above Manaus the Solimões, which is also known as the main stem of the Amazon, remains navigable for a further 1,780 kilometres. Ships with drafts of about six metres can use this upper section as far as Iquitos in Peru for most of the year.
Manaus's two existing container terminals, Chibatão and Super Terminals, located next to each other on the Rio Negro, currently handle about 350,000TEU per year. Plans are in the offing for dramatic increases in the port's capacity. With river heights ranging up and down by about 14 metres over the year, all terminals are floating and connected to the land by huge ramps. On August 22, there were four ocean-going ships in port, with one at anchor in the river and three working cargo at the two floating container ports.
The 186-metre Hong Kong-registered container ship 'MSC Tuscany' was alongside at Chibatão pier with three of the port's six 45-tonne container cranes working her cargo. A number of the port's 80 tractors were kept busy running up the bridge to the dry-land storage. This was a slow day as the 431 metres of pier can simultaneously handle up to four ships with draft between 12 and 20 metres.
To assist ships with docking and un-docking, Porto Chibatão maintains a pair of Cummins-powered tugs. Built at the ERIN Shipyard in Manaus in 2009 and 2010, the Z-drive tugs are each powered by a pair of Cummins KTA50-M engines producing 1,195kW at 1,800rpm. In addition to the container pier, Porto Chibatão operates a ro-ro facility for barges. This services the port's fleet of more than 20 pushboats with one, two or three Cummins KTA19-M3 engines each. In recognition of the long standing relationship with Cummins, Powertech Comercial, the Amazonas Cummins dealer, maintains a service centre at the port.