📊 US Port Imports
Latin American economies have shipped thousands of containers north this year.
Welcome to Latinometrics. We bring you Latin American insights and trends through concise, thought-provoking data visualizations.
Trade ⚓
Making up over 90% of world trade, shipping has been called the life blood of the global economy. When it comes to keeping goods flowing and international trade booming, ports are the nerve centers upon which every economy depends. And there’s no bigger national economy than the United States.
Today we’re taking a look at the goods flowing into US ports with, naturally, a Latin American lens. To do this, we’re using updated data we’ve pulled from our friends over at CargoFax, which uses shipping manifests and port records to compile comprehensive datasets on import activity into the US.
Now, we’re just looking at seaports today, so no land ports of entry like in El Paso or San Diego. And yet, when it comes to Latin America the largest source of imports to the US remains the same: Mexico.
Plugging in the most recent available CargoFax figures from the first five months of 2024, we see that over 381K twenty-foot equivalent units (or TEUs, referring to a standard unit used with shipping containers) made their way from Latin America’s second-largest economy to US ports. And much like in trade across the US–Mexico border, motor vehicles serve as the most notable US import by sea from Mexico.
But while the Ports of Houston or Long Beach may see cars from their counterparts in Mexico, further south it’s all about the commodities.
Just look at Mexico’s southern neighbor of Guatemala. Bananas are the 10th most-imported good into the US thus far this year, and per CargoFax data the Central American country is the largest source. Even with closer geographic proximity, it remains quite impressive that more containers come into US ports from Guatemala than Brazil, a world economy with over 10x the population size.
We should add a small caveat when looking to Panama, however, which with over 371K TEUs might strike you as really punching above its weight. Owing to its central geographic location and namesake canal, Panamanian ports often receive goods from other countries — by truck, rail, or boat — before reloading and shipping out those goods. So many of those “Panamanian” grapes you see actually come from far-off Southern Cone countries like Argentina or Chile.
In any case, for all the talk of dependence on China or Europe, it’s clear that the countries of Latin America play their own essential role in the US trade profile. This is doubly the case when considering the disruptions seen in supply chains from geopolitical conflicts, transpacific tensions, or global crises such as the pandemic.
From commodities like fruit and coffee to high-value goods like automobiles, Latin America is a critical source of all sorts of goods upon which US consumers and businesses depend.
We look forward to checking back in with the newest figures from CargoFax at the end of the year to see how things have changed. For now, happy sailing!
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Comment of the Week 🗣️
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