Not only is Guayaquil some 91 kilometres up river but there is limited water depth of only 9.6 metres to contend with. In the age of larger and yet larger ships this is an increasing limitation.

"There is not enough deep water to operate ships efficiently" Tim Stout, regional director for Hamburg Sud of West Coast South America, said in an interview recently.

Manta lays its claim to be the new hub not so much on its political or economic backing - it is a venture of global ports giant Hutchison Port Holdings and is supported by Ecuador's President Correa - but on the fact that its draught is 12 metres at low tide and up two more at high tide, with dredging planned to take that to 16 metres.

"We aim to provide a deep water solution in Manta," Paul Gallie, general manager of the facility Terminals International de Ecuador (TIDE), told TOC.

Competing with this is Posorja, to the south of Guayaquil, backed by Alinport whose major shareholder and manager is APM. It claims both location to the Ecuadorean markets and the international shipping lanes as its strong points. Manta can challenge the latter but has a lesser case for the former as Guayaquil is Ecuador's economic centre.

Outside Ecuador, there is more competition with Peru's Callao making a stand to be the region's first hub. Other challenges come from places such as Buenaventura in Colombia. And without a over-arching regional plan there is a risk of flipping the issue of undersupply into one of oversupply, something that should be in the forefront of investors into the region.