Port activity report of Latin America and the Caribbean 2018

2 April 2019|Briefing note

New edition analyses 31 countries and 118 ports and port zones of the region

The port activity report of Latin America and the Caribbean 2018, previously known as port ranking, from this year on will analyse additional information upon its traditional report. (*)

Hereunder, the analysis on the performance of a sampling of 31 countries and 118 ports and port zones in the region. Firstly, the throughput in TEU[1] is analysed (table 1), in which all ports of the sampling are featured. Subsequently, the analysis of the throughput by country (table 2), transhipment and tonnage are presented. According to the report, the container throughput rose 7.7% in 2018 in comparison with the previous year (throughput variation). The data largely maintained the heterogeneity seen in throughput behaviour in the previous year, both in reference to ports and countries. On the total sampling, only 66 ports and port zones saw their figures improve versus 2017.

According to the data of the sampling, in 2018 the East Coast of South America (ECSA) recorded a 12% increase in the activity of ports and port areas, measured in terms of volume. Meanwhile, the West Coast of South America (WCSA) continued with a slight upward trend, growing 7% in 2018, compared with the 6% seen between 2016 and 2017. The Caribbean showed 12% growth in total throughput, while Central America (without including Mexico) had more subtle growth of 7% only on the West Coast, since the East Coast essentially maintained the same activity levels as in 2017. The Gulf of Mexico area grew 8% versus 2017, and Pacific Mexico 11%. Panama, meanwhile, experienced growth on its Caribbean coast (11%) with regard to the country’s total throughput, while its Pacific coast registered a decline of -16%.

The ten countries contributing the most to the total volume of cargo handled represented 84.1% of the total throughput. In 2017, the total Latin America and the Caribbean throughput represented 6.6% of the world throughput. In 2018, the percentage rose to 7.1%, result of a throughput of approximately 53,2 million TEU mobilized in the region.

These novelties include an examination of the tonnes mobilized by port and port zones in 2018. Of the 20 ports and port zones in the sampling, only those in Brazil show individual tonnage exceeding 100 million, while the top twenty ports include terminals in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Panama.

Table 4 shows and analysis of the relative importance of container transhipment in relation to total throughput in a country, while table 5 presents the details in TEU by port and port zones. In the first ten countries, the total of transhipments represents nearly 30% of the entire throughput of the 31 countries and 118 ports and port areas under consideration. Caribbean ports represent 22.3%, while the importance of the East Coast of South America is striking in 2018.

For comparative purposes, the report also includes port throughput on a global level in 2018, which was led by Shanghai, with 42 million TEU mobilized. Here one can appreciate the truly massive difference of nearly 38 million TEU seen versus the region’s first position, held by the port of Colón (MIT, Evergreen, Panama Port), which notched just over 4,3 million TEU last year. The ten biggest ports on a global level represent 32.2% of global throughput in 2018, while those of Latin America and the Caribbean represent just 3.5%.

[1] Twenty-foot equivalent unit.

Table 1. Port and port zone throughput in TEU

	Country		Port and port zone	Throughput (TEU) 2018	Throughput (TEU) 2017
1		Panamá	Colón (MIT, Evergreen y Panamá Port)	4,324,478	3,891,209
2		Brasil	Zona portuaria de Santos	3,836,487	3,578,192
3		México	Manzanillo, COL.	3,078,505	2,830,370
4		Colombia	Bahia de Cartagena	2,862,787	2,678,005
5		Panamá	Panamá Pacifico	2,520,587	2,986,617
6		Perú	El Callao	2,340,657	2,250,224
7		Ecuador	Guayaquil (APG y terminales privados)	2,064,281	1,871,591
8		Jamaica	Kingston	1,833,053	1,560,000
9		Argentina	Buenos Aires (Puerto Nuevo y Dock Sud)	1,797,955	1,468,960
10		Chile	San Antonio	1,660,832	1,296,890
11		Puerto Rico	San Juan	1,405,348	1,199,157
12		Colombia	Buenaventura	1,369,139	920,000
13		República Dominicana	Caucedo	1,331,907	1,235,801
14		México	Lázaro Cárdenas, MICH.	1,314,798	1,149,079
15		Costa Rica	Limón-Moin	1,187,760	1,199,628
16		México	Veracruz, VER.	1,176,253	1,117,304
17		Bahamas	Freeport	1,050,140	850,426
18		Brasil	Zona portuaria de Itajaí	1,045,813	999,277
19		Chile	Valparaíso	903,296	1,073,734
20		México	Altamira, TAMPS.	820,092	803,222
21		Uruguay	Montevideo	797,874	939,427
22		Brasil	Paranaguá - Antonina	765,785	752,250
23		Brasil	Rio Grande	736,967	743,717
24		Honduras	Puerto Cortes	670,979	642,218
25		Brasil	Zona portuaria de São Francisco do Sul	634,197	592,304
26		Brasil	Zona portuaria de Manaus	563,045	270,331
27		Guatemala	Santo Tomas de Castilla	554,432	566,539
28		Chile	Coronel	528,202	431,213
29		Guatemala	Puerto Barrios	489,665	455,973
30		Chile	Talcahuano (incluye San Vicente)	486,568	516,449
31		Guatemala	Puerto Quetzal	486,499	367,239
32		República Dominicana	Rio Haina	479,531	488,963
33		Brasil	Suape - Recife	454,721	460,769
34		Venezuela (República Bolivariana de)	Puerto Cabello	418,295	n.a.
35		Brasil	Aratu - Salvador	375,884	301,129
36		Brasil	Rio de Janeiro - Niterói	366,206	281,473
37		Cuba	Mariel	349,722	332,240
38		Brasil	Pecém - Fortaleza	344,887	283,757
39		Brasil	Itaguaí	327,186	282,682
40		Chile	Lirquen	320,404	311,072
41		Costa Rica	Caldera	305,031	289,582
42		Perú	Paita TPE	274,151	228,367
43		México	Ensenada, B.C.	272,258	230,185
44		Martinica	Fort-de-France	258,783	240,881
45		Brasil	Vitória	250,424	195,243
46		Chile	Arica	236,890	238,018
47		El Salvador	Acajutla	230,989	209,903
48		Guadalupe	Terminal of Jarry (GPPTP)	223,789	210,000
49		Chile	Iquique	259,867	280,353
50		Trinidad y Tabago	Port of Spain	187,524	252,159
51		Trinidad y Tabago	Point Lisas	170,951	162,498
52		Nicaragua	Corinto	169,969	165,463
53		Chile	Puerto Angamos	163,540	158,347
54		Brasil	Vila do Conde - Belém	154,908	124,323
55		Colombia	Zona portuaria de Barranquilla	154,533	150,000
56		Venezuela (República Bolivariana de)	Puerto de La Guaira	149,708	n.a.
57		México	Progreso, YUC.	146,456	91,318
58		Bahamas	Nassau	132,696	70,226
59		Argentina	Zárate	127,140	118,329
60		Ecuador	Puerto Bolivar (APPB)	113,515	78,721
61		Honduras	Castilla	109,272	119,251
62		Colombia	Zona portuaria de Santa Marta	104,611	120,000
63		Barbados	Bridgetown	100,952	107,098
64		Brasil	Imbituba	99,724	49,453
65		Curazao	Willemstad	96,738	93,921
66		Colombia	Turbo	73,328	67,522
67		Chile	Antofagasta	73,150	71,935
68		Argentina	Zona portuaria del Gran Rosario	71,675	66,616
69		Argentina	Zona portuaria de Ushuaia	59,898	53,262
70		Aruba	Barcadera (Oranjestad)	58,500	47,534
71		México	Puerto Chiapas	54,308	47,702
72		México	Mazatlan, SIN.	48,189	48,380
73		Belice	Belize	47,729	44,381
74		República Dominicana	Santo Domingo	45,514	53,488
75		Brasil	Porto Alegre	40,794	n.a.
76		Islas Caimán	Cayman	38,772	61,940
77		República Dominicana	Puerto Plata	36,363	48,712
78		Argentina	Puerto Madryn	35,781	30,963
79		Ecuador	Esmeraldas (APE)	34,670	39,778
80		Brasil	Natal	33,093	57,606
81		Honduras	San Lorenzo	32,913	35,824
82		Argentina	Zona portuaria de Bahía Blanca	32,442	27,843
83		México	Guaymas, SON.	28,971	16,031
84		Argentina	San Antonio Este	28,821	n.a.
85		Belice	Big Creek	28,096	15,751
86		Perú	Ilo	27,717	28,606
87		Panamá	Almirante	27,304	20,420
88		Chile	Punta Arenas	24,500	24,236
89		Granada	St. George's	23,887	21,914
90		Perú	Matarani	22,192	18,183
91		Argentina	Mar del Plata	19,160	n.a.
92		México	Coatzacoalcos, VER.	19,122	19,992
93		San Vicente y las Granadinas	Campden Park	18,107	17,502
94		Argentina	Puerto Deseado	17,687	n.a.
95		Colombia	San Andrés	15,599	8,134
96		Venezuela (República Bolivariana de)	Puerto de Maracaibo	13,718	n.a.
97		República Dominicana	Manzanillo	13,172	15,652
98		México	Tuxpan, VER.	11,835	n.a.
99		Brasil	Porto Velho	11,364	n.a.
100		México	Puerto Morelos, Q. ROO	9,423	n.a.
101		Venezuela (República Bolivariana de)	Puerto de Guanta	7,351	n.a.
102		México	Tampico, TAMPS.	4,753	n.a.
103		Nicaragua	Arlen Siu	4,434	6,893
104		Venezuela (República Bolivariana de)	Puerto Internacional El Guamache	3,302	n.a.
105		Perú	Pisco	3,217	n.a.
106		Chile	Chacabuco	3,020	3,900
107		México	Salina Cruz, OAX.	2,857	n.a.
108		Colombia	Guajira	2,716	1,798
109		Montserrat	Little Bay	1,839	1,741
110		Argentina	Corrientes	1,726	n.a.
111		San Vicente y las Granadinas	Kingstown	1,711	n.a.
112		Chile	Coquimbo	1,200	n.a.
113		Argentina	Campana	840	n.a.
114		Argentina	San Pedro	778	n.a.
115		Argentina	Molca	485	n.a.
116		Argentina	Concepción del Uruguay	40	n.a.
117		Perú	Salaverry	40	n.a.
118		Ecuador	Manta (APM)	20	n.a.

Note: Some data are preliminary. In case of modification, this table will be updated, and all data will be published in the page of the Maritime and Logistic Profile of ECLAC as well.

Port activity report of Latin America and the Caribbean 2018

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Port activity report of Latin America and the Caribbean 2018

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