April 19 (Reuters) - An accident with a shiploader at

the sugar terminal in the Recife port in Northeastern Brazil

suspended loading operations at the site, according to a note

from shipping company Williams Brazil.

The company said the shiploader collapsed and a part of the

machine fell inside the cargo hold of a vessel that was docked

at the port to load raw sugar.

The press service at the Recife port said it would check the

situation and have further information about the status of the

sugar terminal later on Friday.

Recife is not a major commodities port in Brazil, but it

loads smaller volumes of sugar during some months of the year.

According to port line-up information, there were three

vessels currently waiting to load 71,000 metric tons of raw

sugar at the port. The buyers of the sugar were Louis Dreyfus,

Tate & Lyle ( TATYF ) and ASR, said Williams, with destinations

of the United States and Portugal.

There was no immediate information regarding potential

injuries to workers.