page_title: Port of Santos
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Port of Santos / History
caption_attribution_description: Santos in the 1900s by Benedito Calixto
context_page_description: The Port of Santos is located in the city of Santos, state of São Paulo, Brazil. As of 2006, it is the busiest container port in Latin America.
  It possesses a wide variety of cargo handling terminals—solid and liquid bulk, containers, and general loads. It is Brazil's leading port in container traffic. The terrestrial access system to the port is made up by the Anchieta and Imigrantes highways and by the railroads operated by Ferroban and MRS.
  It was once considered the "port of death" in the 19th century due to yellow fever, and ships often avoided docking at the wood plank port. The floods in the city's area provoked illnesses.
  Today it is Latin America's largest port. Its structure is considered Brazil's most modern.
  In the early 20th century, major overhauling and urbanization created the port's modern structure seen today, eliminating the risk of diseases and providing the port with modern, industrial-age infrastructure.
  The location of the city of Santos was chosen at a convenient point for crossing the Serra do Mar mountain range, which is the main obstacle to access the interior.
context_section_description: The port of Santos was originally founded in 1892 on the banks of the Santos River. In 1913, there were about 90,00 inhabitants in the city of Santos and the economically active population was at about 37,000 with 22.7 percent working in the port as longshoremen, stevedores, carters, porters and coffee sackers. During the time after World War II, up to 1960, the port was known as the “Red Port” because of strong influence of Communism in the workers unions and city’s politics. Lack of investments and high tariffs were factors observed at the time and led the Port of Santos to a rapid decay around 1970. In 1980, the 90-year concession period ceded to Companhia Docas de Santos or CODESP. CODESP was a big player in the ports structure and worker culture. CODESP was in control of most of the port operations, created a new culture of work that created stronger bonds between the workers, and allowed for the creation of institutions to unite different categories of workers. Ever since the late 19th century the CODESP has tried to gain even more control over port operations. This, however, violated the workers’ sense of freedom and independence and caused the uprising of many of the worker institutions through different strikes for worker rights. In 1993, the Brazilian government realized that the singular control over the port that CODESP had was inhibiting the ports ability to be competitive and be more efficient. They then passed a law that de-monopolized the port's operational services.
caption: The Port of Santos in the 1900s
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