Why Are Latin America’s Imports Rising Faster Than Exports?

The gap is already close to 1.7m TEU.

Latin America’s container trade is growing fast.

But imports and exports are moving at very different speeds.

• Imports rose 8% in H1.

• Exports rose only 3.5%.

The gap widened by 20%.

It is now close to 1.7m TEU.

That matters for container availability, capacity and rates.

So what happens to all those extra boxes?

Here are 5️⃣ signals behind it:

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1️⃣ The market is growing

• Latin America handled ~11m TEU in H1.

• That was ~6% higher y-o-y.

• Imports, exports and regional trade all grew.

💡 Latin America is becoming more important to container shipping.

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2️⃣ Imports are growing much faster