Between January and August, 4.40379 million TEUs were moved whereas the same period in 2012 the amount was 4,624,124 TEUs.
"The decline in port activity is attributed to the global crisis, but particularly to the decrease in sales from the Colon Free Zone to Venezuela and Colombia, the main customers of this zone," reports Prensa.com.
The only ports to register increases were PSA (Panama International Terminal), which operates in Rodman and Colon Container Terminal in Colon.
The Panamanian port system saw a decrease from 2,325,000 TEUs in the first quarter of 2012 to 2,079,000 TEUs in the same period of 2013.
"The decline in container cargo movement is attributed to the economic crisis in Europe and the U.S., as well as the fall in trade between the largest South American economies: Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil," noted an article in Prensa.com .
Leading Latin America, the ports of Colon and Balboa have the largest volume of containers moved, with Santos of Brazil in third place.
Of the 20 major ports in Latin America, Colon (MIT, Evergreen and Cristóbal) was placed first with 3.3 million TEUs or 20 foot long containers mobilized in 2011, followed by Balboa with 3.2 million and Santos (Brazil) 2.9 million, reported Prensa.com.
It is estimated that in the coming years the Atlantic sector could become a major logistics hub.
Expansion of capacity to move containers and systems improvements are some of the tasks that have been started by port operators in the Atlantic sector, who believe there will be a strong rebound in demand once the expansion of the canal is underway.
The Taiwanese Container Terminal in Colon has asked the Panamanian government to expand the concession for its container yard.
According to the proposal, the company would get 12 additional acres in concession to convert them into a container yard, thereby increasing current capacity of 700,00 to 1.5 million containers.
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