Cargo volumes back on the rise in LatAm
THE THROUGHPUT of containerised cargo in the ports of Latin America and the Caribbean increased six per cent last year, data that affirms regional improvement in foreign trade, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, ECLAC.
In its Maritime and Logistics Profile, ECLAC said that the average figure points to a rebound relative to the prior three years, which were characterised by low or negative growth rates in container throughput.
The data showed that while individual countries generally recorded significant improvement, there was marginal participation from Suriname, Grenada and Nicaragua.
The countries making the greatest contribution to the additional cargo volumes included Dominican Republic, Colombia, Mexico, Panama and Brazil. They were followed with smaller but positive contributions by Honduras, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Ecuador.
ECLAC said the total cargo volumes in 2017 reached approximately 50.6 million TEUs, the standard unit of measurement equivalent to a container of a length of 20 feet, or 6.25 metres.
The first 40 ports in the ranking represent accounted for 87 per cent or 44 million TEUs of cargo movement, with the following 100 accounting for the other 13 per cent.
The agency said the region’s top 10 ports captured 48.2 per cent of cargo volumes, a percentage slightly higher than that of the previous year, which was 47.4 per cent.
In the Caribbean, container throughput in port terminals fell again by 1.1 per cent, but was a better outcome than the 2.5 per cent decline in 2016.
ECLAC said the rise in container traffic was notable in the ports of the Dominican Republic, Grenada and, to a lesser extent, Antigua & Barbuda, Martinique and Suriname.