Latin American port activity declines

ECLAC’s throughput ranking shows that the region’s ports grew by just 2%, far less than the respective 16% and 9% growth rates for the comparable periods in 2011 and 2012. In fact, it was the region’s weakest first half performance since 2009.

According to ECLAC, the world’s economic woes which are mainly attributable to the slowdown in the largest Asian economies, continue to affect foreign trade volumes in Latin America and the Caribbean, particularly container volumes.

ECLAC’s port rankings shows that the top 20 container ports in Latin America and the Caribbean – which account for 74% percent of regional throughput – posted practically zero growth in the first half of 2013 (-0.1%).