By Ricardo Sanchez
The following chart shows the evolution of Top-20 container ports between 2021 and 2022.
Sources: CSA and port authorities.
The top-20 sample is approximately 82% of the container ports activity in the Greater Caribbean, excluding Mexico. The year 2022 shows an extremely slight growth of the top 20 Caribbean ports regarding 2021 (just 0.2%), with some ports strongly increasing (Panama Caribbean, Kingston JA, Caucedo RD, Honduras and T&T) and others with soft to sharped declines. In 2022, the top 20 ports combined handled 13.1% more compared to 2020, +14.2% with respect to 2019 and 45% more than in 2010.
The variations in throughput are different for each port. In the three comparisons displayed in the chart below, among which it stands out that between 2021 and 2022 the behaviour has markedly varied (among the 20 ports, 9 of them show a decrease that is slight in 7 of the cases). With respect to the pre-pandemic, 15 out of 20 show certain growth, and 19/20 strongly grow compared to the 2010 measures.
However, the ranking among the top 20 has remained with only slight variations between 2010 and 2022:
| Port area | Rank 2010 | Rank 2019 | Rank 2022 |
| Panama Caribbean (all terminals) | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Panama Pacific (all terminals) | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| Cartagena Bay, Colombia | 4 | 2 | 3 |
| Kingston, Jamaica | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| Freeport, Bahamas | 6 | 6 | 5 |
| Caucedo, DR | 5 | 8 | 6 |
| San Juan, Puerto Rico | 7 | 5 | 7 |
| Limon-Moin, Costa Rica | 8 | 7 | 8 |
| Puerto Cortes, Honduras | 9 | 9 | 9 |
| Santo Tomas de Castilla, Guatemala | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Haina, DR | 12 | 12 | 11 |
| Puerto Barrios, Guatemala | 13 | 11 | 12 |
| Port of Spain, T&T | 11 | 13 | 13 |
| Santa Marta, Colombia | 19 | 14 | 14 |
| Jarry/Point-a-Pitre, Guadaloupe | 17 | 15 | 15 |
| Point Lisas, T&T | 14 | 17 | 16 |
| Port-au-Prince, Haiti | 15 | 18 | 18 |
| Fort-de-France, Martinique | 16 | 16 | 17 |
| Barranquilla, Colombia | 18 | 19 | 19 |
| Puerto Castilla, Honduras | 21 | 20 | 20 |
| Bridgetown, Barbados | 22 | 21 | 21 |
| Willemstad, Curacao | 20 | 22 | 22 |
| Bocas Fruit, Panama | 23 | 23 | 23 |
| Barcadera, Oranjestad, Aruba | 25 | 24 | 24 |
| Campden Park, SVG | 24 | 25 | 25 |
It is also noteworthy that the first six ports in the ranking have a strong incidence of transhipment, which is displayed in the following table:
Lastly, the ranking at the level of individual companies is presented as follows:
| # | Port area | Throughput 2022, ‘000 |
| 1 | GPC, Colombia | 3.091 |
| 2 | MIT, Panama | 2.744 |
| 3 | Balboa, Panama | 2.181 |
| 4 | Kingston, Jamaica | 2.006 |
| 5 | Freeport, Bahamas | 1.574 |
| 6 | Colon, Panama | 1.445 |
| 7 | Caucedo, DR | 1.407 |
| 8 | San Juan, Puerto Rico * | 1.399 |
| 9 | Limon-Moin, Costa Rica | 1.321 |
| 10 | Rodman, Panama | 1.168 |
| * two terminals included |
