Compared to countries like Argentina, Jamaica, Chile, Panama and Brazil, which have had a decline or low growth in operations, Peru, Colombia and Mexico are the three countries that increased their container movements in Latin America.
According to a report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), an agency of the United Nations, container transport had a low dynamism, confirming the slowdown in the region's foreign trade over the past year due to the recession in Europe and a slower growth in the United States and China.
According to the ranking of container movement in the ports of Latin America and the Caribbean, (published by ECLAC in its Maritime Profile in 2010) the movement of containers in maritime terminals grew by 15.9%, and then decreased to 13.9% in 2011 and 4.3% in 2012.
The main container ports in Latin America and the Caribbean showed a growth of 7.4% during the first half of 2012, but suffered a sharp slowdown in the second half of the year with an increase of only 0.4%.
Port activity loss in 2012 was concentrated in five countries: Argentina and Jamaica, with an annual decline of 10.5% and 35.1%, respectively, and Chile, Panama and Brazil with a low annual growth of 1.2%, 3.4% and 3.6%, with a contraction during the second half of the year of 2.2%, 2.6% and 1.2%, in each case.
According to ECLAC, other countries in the region still seem immune to the slowdown of ports and growth rates remained strong, despite the global recessionary context. Peru grew by 9.9%, Colombia 18.2%, Mexico, closing the top three, 13.9%; Costa Rica, 15.0%, Venezuela, 17.6%, and Dominican Republic, 18.4 percent.
The most dynamic ports in 2012 in these countries were Callao in Peru, Cartagena and Buenaventura in Colombia, Lazaro Cardenas, Veracruz and Manzanillo in Mexico, Limon Moin in Costa Rica, Cabello in Venezuela, and Caucedo in Dominican Republic.
The causes of this heterogeneous performance across countries, ports and container or multipurpose terminals are varied, says the UN agency. "The Chilean ports of San Vicente and San Antonio show double-digit positive numbers due to the success of their projects and business management. However, the total annual growth of this industry in the country was only 1.2 percent. "
Meanwhile in the Caribbean, the ports of Caucedo in the Dominican Republic and Freeport in the Bahamas are the only ones that present good results within their category (transfers), contributing to the subregion's growth.
Source: Nuestromar.org