The 10 major ports of Latin America
The 10 most important ports for storage capacity,
transshipment and infrastructure make Latin America one of the regions of
highest growth and importance for international trade. Its most important ports
are:
(China forwarding service to Panama)
Colon the Atlantic Giant is
located at the Caribbean entrance of the Panama Canal and includes MIT
(Manzanillo International Terminal), the largest transshipment port in Latin
America and one of the most modern in the world, the Evergreen port (Colon
Container Terminal) and Hutchison-Whampoa’s port of Cristobal, all located in
the same area, which represents a huge dock frontage and moving close to three
million containers a year between the three. The administration of the three
ports is independent and private. It has about 2.5 kilometers of quay,
including MIT with 1.2 km continuous.
Colon also has a major cruise port in the region, Colon
2000. Balboa on the Pacific is also operated by Hutchison-Whampoa and Rodman by
Singapore Port Authority (PSA).
(Shipping from China to Guyana, Suriname, Jamaica)
A giant of the Caribbean, with an annual traffic of 2.2 million containers, is
also the main tourist port of Central and South America. At the moment
expansion works are being completed that will expand the port’s capacity to
accommodate 3.2 million TEUs per year. It has 1.7 miles of docks and a large
infrastructure development with the latest technology that will allow, for
example, 18 cranes to work with super post Panamax vessels.
(Shipping from China to Brazil)
is the seaport for the industrial giant
of Sao Paulo, just 70 miles distant, and the largest on the South American
Atlantic coast. It has 9.4 miles of docks which are used also as a cruise port
for tourism. In Brazil and in South America nobody beats Santos for logistics
capacity. It is one of the great sites for the export of Brazilian oil, but its
primary cargo is fertilizers, and it annually moves 1.6 million TEUs.
(Freight services from China to Argentina)
for many years was the largest port in Latin America due to its monumental cargo traffic. However, the crisis at the beginning of this century affected it, as well as the private dynamism in Panama and Brazil’s economic boom. It moves 1.4 million containers annually and its infrastructure, while not the most modern, is respectable: 13 Trastainers, 19 container cranes with a flow of close to 80,000 TEUs per year each and 23 berths.
5. Port of Manzanillo (Mexico)
(Shipping from China to Mexico)
Set on the Mexican Pacific,
it is the gateway to the most important industrial and commercial corridor of
that country. Its output is the largest from iron ore mines in Mexico, and it
also has a very strong influence as a fishing area and a key transshipment
point in trade with the United States and to Central and South America. The
Mexican government announced earlier this year that it will invest just over
$650 million in the expansion of the terminal, including a new railway.
It has 16 berths (14 commercial and 2 cruise docks), and
56.6 acres of storage area equipped with 24.7 km of railways and 6.2 km of
track, allowing it to have an annual traffic of 1.1 million TEUs.
(Shipping from China to Cuba and the Bahamas)
is perhaps the most modern port in the region. Opened in 1997 and developed as a free trade area, it has an impressive ability to transship annually a million containers through its facilities, most coming from or destined for the United States, thanks to its geographical and political advantages that make it the ideal transshipment point to carry goods to American shores.
However, the importance of this port is not only in
container traffic. More than one million tourists land annually at Freeport to
enjoy the fabulous beaches of the Bahamas.
7. Puerto Limon-Moin (Costa Rica)
(Shipping from China to Costa Rica, China-Costa Rica FTA)
A few years ago these two
neighboring ports, Limon and Moin, joined in a single infrastructure that made
this new port one of the largest in Central America on the Caribbean coast,
surpassing even Veracruz. Traffic of oil and its derivatives is the great
strength of Limon-Moin, which is also a great exporting point for bananas in
the region. Its 2008 figures reached 845,000 TEUs.
(Shipping from China to Mexico)
The historic Caribbean port, along with
Cartagena, for centuries had the most traffic, but it is not as before. The
facilities offered by Kingston and the Bahamas have shifted traffic to the
Caribbean, but it remains essential for the Mexican economy.
The vast majority of vehicles built in or imported to Mexico
pass through Veracruz, which is moving 675,000 TEUs annually through its 40
acres of storage space.
(Sea freight from China to Chile, China-Chile FTA)
is now the main port of Chile, above
Valparaiso, and it is also one of the most important in the South Pacific.
Located 100 km from Santiago, its influence is not only in the industrial zone
of the country, but is also used by Argentina for agro-industrial products in
the region of Mendoza.
Moving 651,000 TEUs annually, it is the main docking point
of ships arriving from Asia.
(Shipping from China to Buenaventura, Baranquilla and Cartagena Colombia)
with 457,000 TEUs in 2007,
became the largest Colombian port and the most important on the South Pacific
coast. Its proximity to Panama, and being between Panama and San Antonio,
turned Buenaventura into one of the great landmarks in the American trade, and
in an enclave vital to the national economy. Since 2007 it began a master plan
of investment until 2034, which aims to increase the installed capacity from
13.5 TMA (Metric Tons per Square Meter) to 22.8 TMA.
