Surge In Traffic At Mexico’s Ports
A surge in traffic has been witnessed at Mexico’s container ports in January, as throughput increased by 20% from the previous month, leading to concerns that the ongoing growth will put a strain on capacity.
The increased volume was largely led by the main Pacific gateways, as Lazaro Cardenas with 41.2% growth and Manzanillo with 13.8% additional throughput, handled record volumes. While the Gulf of Mexico container tallies climbed by 18.8%, including 13.1% growth at the port of Veracruz.
Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas have both experienced capacity bottlenecks recently and continue to operate at maximum capacity. The increase in volume is largely attributed to a rush in Chinese exports ahead of Luna New Year, peak season and an increase in finished vehicles coming from Asia, with the latter being hampered by a lack of sufficient ro-ro services.
Experts expect the increase in Chinese exports to continue, as many manufacturers from the country have been setting up production facilities in Mexico to help supply the US market.
In response to the recent pressure on ports, carriers have made temporary alterations to certain West Coast services, with some omitting Manzanillo to avoid heavy congestion. In these cases, vessels are unloading containers at Lazaro Cardenas as a short term solution.
For now, the congestion issues have not been impacting our services to or from the UK, but the Envío team are monitoring developments closely.
