Latin America to double capacity every 4-5 years

A report issued by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cepal) has warned that the Brazilian port of Santos will have to double its capacity every four years in order to keep up with demand, while port capacity in the rest of Latin America will also have to double every five years simply to accommodate cargo traffic on offer.

Port Strategy: the Port of Santos will have to seriously up capacity to meet future demand

The forecast is based on traffic figures for 2001-2006, which grew exponentially due to demand from China.Over this period, box traffic at Santos grew by 22.3%, while at the port of Itaguai, in Rio de Janeiro, throughput increased by 127%.