The Costa Rica News (TCRN) – Latin America and the Caribbean saw lower activity during 2012, with a slowdown in foreign trade in the region as result of the recession in Europe and slower growth in the U.S. and China.
A report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) released Tuesday, specifies that in 2010 the movement of containers at marine terminals grew by 15.9%, which was reduced to 13 , 9% in 2011 and 4.3% in 2012.
The information was directly collected by ECLAC, with port authorities and shows the detail of the movements in 2012 for the 80 major ports in the region.
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%.
Likewise, the loss of port activity 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 where low annual growth 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.
In contrast, other countries in the region seem immune to the slowdown of ports and growth rates remained strong, despite the global recessionary context.
This is the case of Peru (9.9%), Colombia (18.2%), Mexico (13.9%), Costa Rica (15.0%), Venezuela (17.6%) and Dominican Republic (18, 4%).
According to ECLAC, the dynamic ports in 2012 in these countries were Callao in Peru, Cartagena and Buenaventura in Colombia, Lazaro Cardenas, Veracruz and Manzanillo in Mexico, Moin Limon in Costa Rica, Cabello in Venezuela, and Caucedo in Dominican Republic.
According to the United Nations agency, the causes of this heterogeneous performance across countries, ports and container terminals or multipurpose are varied.
For example, 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%, the bank said.
In the Caribbean, meanwhile, ports in the Dominican Republic and Freeport in the Bahamas are the only ones who have good results in its category (transfers), contributing to the growth of the sub-region, concludes the report of the ECLAC.
The Costa Rica News (TCRN)
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