Latin America: largest container ports by container traffic 2021

In 2021, the port of Colón, Panama, handled the highest volume of cargo containers in Latin America and the Caribbean, at approximately 4.92 million TEUs. The port of Santos, in Brazil, followed with 4.44 million TEUs of cargo. Meanwhile, on the Pacific-side of the Panama Canal, Balboa also ranked amongst the top five Latin American ports that year.

A new era of maritime trade

In 1914, the opening of the Panama Canal revolutionised international trade. Together with the Suez Canal, this artificial waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans became one of the most vital in the world, significantly cutting down travel distances. As a result, more than 13 thousand transits are conducted annually through the canal, with transport between the U.S. East Coast and Asia ranking as the leading trading route intermediated by it, based on volume . In turn, in 2020, the Panama Canal generated a toll revenue of 2.66 billion U.S. dollars for the Central American nation, an increase from 2019 despite the slowdown in global trade amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

Water transport on the rise

Maritime shipping plays a crucial role in how products and goods are transported worldwide. While other means of transport such as air and rail may offer faster delivery times, ocean freight presents a significant cost and capacity advantage, with its competitiveness rising along with the load capacity of ships. Between 2009 and 2019, the volume of seaborne transported goods rose by over 40 percent, surpassing 11 billion tons of cargo in the latter year. Following that same trend, Latin American container ports handled 54.1 million TEUs of cargo in 2019, an increase of nearly 15 percent in comparison to 2014.