Where Brazil's imports actually clear

The short answer

Import value concentrates hard on a small number of customs units. Santos alone clears 28.2% of Brazil's import value; the top five customs units, Santos, Paranaguá, Rio de Janeiro, and the Guarulhos and Viracopos airports, together account for more than half of it. Which one your shipment clears through decides freight cost and, through the state it lands in, the ICMS rate on the whole shipment (see ICMS by state).

Import by customs unit, 2025

FOB value, ComexStat/MDIC API, pulled 23 September 2026, database updated 4 September 2026.

A caveat on reading this table: URF is where the declaration is registered, not necessarily the physical dock, and one URF can serve several terminals. Cargo moved under transit to an inland dry port is counted under that inland URF rather than the coastal one where it physically arrived. Airports carry roughly 6% of value each at Guarulhos and Viracopos but under 0.1% of weight, the signature of high-value, low-weight airfreight against bulk maritime cargo.

Container throughput, public ports

ANTAQ Boletim Estatístico Aquaviário, Q3 2025, primary source. Public ports only; private terminals (TUP) such as Itapoá or Portonave are not included.

The +30.2% figure for Rio de Janeiro is a comparison against these five ports in the same quarter a year earlier, not an annual ranking; treat it as one quarter's movement, not a trend confirmed over a longer period.

Annual 2025 figures, use with the method attached

These figures are reached through trade press reporting an ANTAQ release rather than the release itself, and are shown with the method next to each one rather than as a single blended number. Sector-wide: 1.4 billion tonnes (+6.1%) and 15.3 million TEU (+10.2%; long-haul 10.4 million, cabotage 4.8 million), ANTAQ release of 11 February 2026. Santos specifically shows two different totals depending on scope: the port authority's own figure of 186.4 million tonnes (+3.6%) against ANTAQ's public-port figure of 142.8 million tonnes (+3%); both are shown here rather than picking one, because they measure different things. Santos also handled 5.9 million TEU (+7.7%), with exports of 137.4 million tonnes against imports of 49 million tonnes. Portos do Paraná (Paranaguá) handled 73.5 million tonnes and 1,662,370 TEU. The Itajaí complex's release headline states "more than 15.7 million tonnes" without a more granular figure. Itapoá, a private terminal not in the ANTAQ public-port table above, handled 1.5 million TEU. Suape handled 24.25 million tonnes (-2.4%).

Dry ports and CLIAs

A porto seco, formerly called an EADI, is an inland customs facility under the Receita Federal's Manual de Alfandegamento. CLIA, Central Logística e Industrial Aduaneira, is a related but distinct concept: it was created by Medida Provisória 320/2006, which was rejected on 14 December 2006, and again by MP 612/2013, which lapsed on 1 August 2013. CLIAs licensed while those measures were in force still operate; new ones are not being licensed under a current legal basis, per a secondary legal summary (Miller Advogados). Do not present a CLIA as an option available to a new project.

Sources

• Import by customs unit: ComexStat API, api-comexstat.mdic.gov.br, pulled 23 September 2026, database updated 4 September 2026.
• Container throughput: ANTAQ, Boletim Estatístico Aquaviário 3T2025 (PDF), primary.
• Annual 2025 figures: ANTAQ release of 11 February 2026, reached through trade press reporting rather than the release directly; port-authority figures for Santos and Paranaguá from their own published statistics.
• CLIA status: Medida Provisória 320/2006 and 612/2013; secondary legal summary, Miller Advogados.

Figures verified 23 September 2026. Port and airport shares shift from year to year; check the current ComexStat pull before relying on a specific figure for a launch plan.