Port Report 2022–first quarter of 2023: The calm after the storm?

Shipping transports around 80% of global trade in goods by volume, and 70% by value (ECLAC, 2023). Global supply chains suffered unprecedented distortions, first as a result of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, declared in March 2020, and then with the outbreak of the war between Ukraine and the Russian Federation on 24 February 2022.

Maritime transport has clearly played a major role in international trade in recent decades, particularly since the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The Infrastructure Services Unit of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) began publishing the Port Report at the start of the new millennium. On this occasion, the Report comes in the aftermath of the impact of an unprecedented health crisis and the war between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, which exposed the fragility of shipping and supply chains worldwide. The situation at present is beset with new challenges, such as the drought affecting the Panama Canal drought, among others, which are once again threatening to impair global supply chains.