Panama’s port system has recorded a significant growth in the movement of TEU containers during the first eight months of 2024.
According to figures from the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP), updated on 11 September, from January to August 2024 the movement of the TEUs in the main Panamanian ports increased 18.4 per cent, after the sharp fall (-4.9 %) recorded in the same period of 2023.
That 18.4 % is the result of the movement of 6,430,433 TEU containers versus the 5,431,847 reported in the same period last year, representing an increase of 98,586 containers more than the previous year. These figures include the movement of local containers (import and export) and the two movements of the trans-dhip containers.
While in the same period of 2022 5,712,217 TEU containers were mobilized, demonstrating that the activity has been in frank growth in the last two years.
By type of TEU, of the 6,430,433 that mobilized until August, 4,575,305 were full and 1,855,128 empty.
By port
Panama has a wide network of ports that provide a wide variety of services to both ships and cargo, whether containing, in bulk, liquid or general, as well as passengers at the different cruise terminals.
Panama has several container ports in the Atlantic that serve mainly on the east coast of North and South America, as well as the Caribbean: Manzanillo International Terminal (MIT) (now SSA Marine MIT), Cristobal and Colon Container Terminal (CCT). The Pacific area also has terminals that serve container handling: Balboa and PSA (Panama International Terminal). Balboa and Christopher’s terminals are operated by Panama Ports Company, a member of Hutchinson Port Holdings. For its part, the terminal of Bocas Fruit Co., located in the northwest part of Panama in Almirante, Bocas del Toro province, carries out commercial containable cargo activities, mainly focused on the export of bananas.
In analyzing the statistics of the AMP, it is observed that of the 6,430,433 containers that were mobilized from January to August 2024, 1,879,587 correspond to Manzanillo International Terminal, a figure that represents an increase of 9.6%, leading the port activity during this period. SSA Marine MIT has demonstrated its importance in regional trade and its handling capacity by becoming one of the leading ports in the container movement of Latin America in recent years. And it is that the physical configuration of this port allows you to receive all kinds of cargo, as well as container ships types breadmax and postpanamax, containerize vehicles and general cargo ships.
According to data from Georgia Tech, SSA Marine MIT is mainly dedicated to the load contained and Ro-Ro. In 2023 it reduced its container movements to 2.62 million TEU, where the transfer represented 85.7 percent of the total movement. In 2022 it mobilized 2.74 million TEU, where the transfer represented 87.7 percent of the total, while in 2021, it mobilized 2.81 million TEU, where the transfer represented 88.7 per cent of the total movement.
SSA Marine MIT is followed in the movement performance of TEU, Panama Ports Company-Balboa, with 1,716,819 (9.7%) mobilized containers, Colon Container Terminal with 1,072,042 (21,9 %), PSA Panama International Terminal with 915,751 (28.3 per cent), Panama Ports Company – Cristobal with 747.724 (28.5 per cent) and Bocas Fruit Co. with 98.510 (90.7%), the statistics of the AMP show.
Cargo movement
According to figures from the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC), until July alone, the national port system mobilized 70,831,169 metric tons of cargo, an increase of 14.9 percent over its similar last year. Of this total, 37,854,899 corresponds to contained cargo (19.6%) and 32,496,066 in bulk (10.9%) and 480.204 general (-31.4%).
According to the latest INEC statistics, Panama’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 2.2 per cent in the first half, driven, among other activities, by the cargo movement, which had an increase of 18.2 per cent. Only in July, the transport and communications sector showed a good boost, basically by activities such as cargo (in metric tons) in the National Harbour System, the movement of TEU containers, telecommunications and air transport, according to the Monthly Index of Economic Activity (IMAE) of INEC.
This article has been translated after first appearing in La Estrella