SANTIAGO, Chile (CMC) – The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) says the movement of cargo in containers in Caribbean ports declined by -8.2 per cent last year.
In a new list, ranking container ports across the region and published in its Maritime Profile, ECLAC said the “limited dynamism” of the region’s ports in 2014 was determined mainly by the “fall in the Caribbean area and on the east coast of South America, where in the first case transfer operations represent a significant volume of port activity.”
“This was explained mainly by Jamaica, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic, which showed annual declines of -3.9 per cent, -6.7 per cent and -9.9 per cent, respectively, and Argentina with -22.4 per cent,” ECLAC said.
Just as in previous periods, ECLAC said the reasons behind growth, deceleration, or “an outright decrease in port activity, are varied”.
It said some ports registered positive figures due to the success of their projects and commercial management, while others were affected by low trade performance in general and some operational problems.
According to ECLAC, the stagnation observed in port movement growth largely stems from, the changes in the nature of port activity that have occurred since the last wave of reforms in the region’s terminals.
Modern ports require a more sophisticated and complex governance to enable the port system to achieve goals that are useful for countries’ economic development, such as greater levels of services, efficiency, productivity and competitiveness,” it said.
“Furthermore, new governance is needed for the integration of the logistics chain in the framework of comprehensive and sustainable public policies, based on an integrated and systemic view,” it added.
ECLAC , however, said there were increases in container activity on the west coast of South America (5.3 per cent), Mexico (4.0 per cent) and Central America (3.4 per cent), and declines on the east coast of South America (-2.2 per cent) and the Caribbean (-8.2 per cent).