Brazil close to standstill as truckers press on with strike

Road blockades across Brazil curtailed supplies of fuel to airports and gas stations, and of food to markets. (AFP/Miguel SCHINCARIOL)

Airports and gas stations were running out of fuel, food prices were spiraling and agricultural exports were hit.

Truckers have attempted to put a stranglehold on movement of goods in Brazil to protest fuel price rises.

The increases are the result of a politically sensitive decision made in late 2016 to allow the Petrobras oil giant autonomy over its pricing, as well as a rise in world prices in recent weeks.

But the determination of the truckers has caught center-right President Michel Temer's government flat-footed, five months ahead of presidential elections.

Petrobras yielded to pressure on Wednesday and temporarily reduced fuel prices, sending its shares plunging more than 13 per cent on the Sao Paulo stock market by late Thursday afternoon.

But the truckers on Thursday were still blocking main arteries in 24 of the 27 states in the vast country, which has only limited rail services.

In the port of Santos near Sao Paulo - the largest in Latin America - there have been virtually no arrivals or departures of trucks for three days, the management said, even if the "loading and unloading operations of ships continues normally" for now.

In the capital Brasilia, the airport was allowing only planes to land that had enough fuel to take off again.

Five other airports including Recife in the northeast and Congonhas in the economic capital of Sao Paulo, fuel reserves could run out on Thursday, the G1 news site said.

Various abattoirs have also halted operations, affecting a key export sector.

'A ONE-OFF MEASURE'

Prices of fruits and vegetables were rocketing in some places to 400 per cent, due to supply problems.

Pump prices were also higher, and long lines formed at many gas stations.

A spokeswoman for Rio's fuel retailers' union Sincomb told AFP that the main service stations were last supplied on Monday.

"There is a lack of fuel in practically all the service stations that we have contacted," she said.

As a way of defusing an increasingly out-of-control situation, Petrobras on Wednesday announced a temporary price reduction of 10 percent.

"It is a one-off measure. It doesn't represent a change in pricing policy," Petrobras chief Pedro Parente told journalists. "These are 15 days for the government to reach a deal with the truckers."

But the head of the Abcam truckers' association, Jose de Fonseca Lopes, was unimpressed. "It is not what we need,", he told CBN radio.

Temer is to meet with truckers' representatives late Thursday, following the failure of talks on Wednesday.

The movement appeared to have some popular support.

"I think that this has been provoked by poor management by the federal government," said Ana Maria Lobo, a driver waiting in line at a gas station in Sao Paulo, who also noted "all these corruption scandals."

In another temporary measure, the lower house of congress decided late Wednesday to suspend the introduction of two taxes on diesel until the end of the year.

If the Senate approves the measure on Thursday, the truckers "are ready to suspend the movement" said Fonseca Lopes.

But the spokeswoman of the National Transport Confederation (CNT) told journalists Thursday that blockades would continue until the president signs the measure into law.

The proposed suspension of the diesel taxes has sparked tensions within the government.

"There is no agreement yet. I am not against it but I would like to know where the money is coming from," said the minister in charge of relations with parliament, Carlos Marun.