Eclac ranks Latin America's top ports

Panama's Colón port took the number one spot as the busiest port in Latin America and the Caribbean by containers handled in the UN's Eclac 2017 ranking.

This port handled 3.89mn TEUs last year, an increase from the 3.26mn TEUs it moved in 2016.

Brazil's Santos, No.1 in the 2016 and 2015 rankings, came in second with 3.58mn TEUs.

Panama's Balboa, Mexico's Manzanillo, and Cartagena port in Colombia ranked third, fourth, and fifth with 2.99mn, 2.83mn, and 2.68mn TEUs, respectively.

Callao port in Peru (2.25mn), Guayaquil in Ecuador (1.87mn), Jamaica's Kingston (1.56mn), Buenos Aires (1.47mn) and Chile's San Antonio (1.30mn) make up the rest of the top 10.

Eclac's ranking shows that container handling across the region increased 6.1% in 2017 to around 50.6mn TEUs, compared to the 47.5mn in 2016. In 2015, that volume amounted to 48mn TEUs, while it was 47mn TEUs in 2014.

The port containerized throughput figures are still modest, especially considering the large expansion and modernization endeavors countries undertook over the last years.

This phenomenon is explained in a BNamericas intelligence report, which showcases that port capacity development in Latin America may outpace throughput demand. The report notes that the average utilization level of the region's ports has generally fallen, in particular when compared to already higher global utilization levels.

For its annual rankings, Eclac uses data obtained from port authorities and terminal operators and measures data related to 120 of the region's ports.