In Brazil, Road Bandits Force Switch to Sea Shipping

Most companies decide how to ship their goods by determining the fastest route between point A and point B. But Paranapanema, Brazil’s biggest refined copper producer, is switching its domestic shipments to slow-moving ocean freighters from swifter trucks. Although the shift almost triples transport times, it cuts costs by 21 percent by eliminating a threat peculiar to Brazilian roads: thieves.

Paranapanema is transporting 65 percent of its domestic deliveries of products such as copper plates and rods by ship this year; last year it sent nothing by sea. The Dias D’Avila-based company plans to move 80 percent by water at year’s end because 15 loads were hijacked along roads in 2012, according to interim Chief Executive Officer Edson Monteiro. “There are a lot of trucks stolen, a lot of violence—we invest a lot in security,” he says. “Nothing has been done in the past 10 years to improve transportation by roads. Brazil is very weak on this issue.”