SAO PAULO, Reuters, July 26 (Reuters) - A truckers' strike in Brazil called by a union representing a third of autonomous truck drivers has failed to seriously affect shipments in its first day, transport sector officials said on Monday.
Officials in Paranagua, Brazil's biggest grain port, said there were about 20 percent fewer trucks bringing goods to the port, but said warehouses were full which was enough to maintain normal activities.
The Brazilian Truckers' Association, which called the three-days strike on Sunday to demand investment in highway repairs, said the numbers of strikers varied from state to state, with the biggest adherence of 90 percent in the southernmost Rio Grande do Sul state.
A union spokesman said that in many places, truckers held quick meetings in the morning after which they continued with their work. He said movement of goods in Brazil's main ports of Paranagua and Santos was reduced.
The union, which represents some 400,000 autonomous truckers out of a total of 1.2 million, also said the strike disrupted car transportation from a Fiat plant in Minas Gerais state, but the Italian company's Brazilian office denied any problems linked to the strike.
The union president on Sunday estimated the strike would leave 94 million tonnes of cargo stalled over three days.
The truckers demanded 8 billion reais ($2.6 billion) in taxes collected by the government to be invested in the repair of highways. The union said 86 percent of the highways in Brazil, Latin America's biggest country, had problems that compromised truck drivers' safety.
However, the National Front of Road Cargo Transporters, a bigger truckers' union, last week agreed to abstain from the strike in exchange for a guarantee that the government would take care of the highway infrastructure.
It said it considered the strike "inconvenient and ill-timed".
In 2002, a truckers' strike interrupted exports of Brazilian coffee and sugar, affecting their prices. Harvesting season for both products is at its peak now. Brazil is the world's biggest producer of coffee and sugar.
($1=3.05 reais)