Mexico container volume inches up despite slow economy

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The volume of loaded 20-foot-equivalent units (TEU) moving through Mexican ports increased this year, despite a slow-moving economy and container volume declines at the country’s biggest port, Mexican government figures show.

The volume of loaded 20-foot-equivalent units (TEU) moving through Mexican ports increased this year, despite a slow-moving economy and container volume declines at the country’s biggest port, Mexican government figures show.Imported loaded TEUs grew by 3.1 percent — to 984,149 — from January to May, compared with the same period in 2015, according to figures from the Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes, or SCT, in Mexico, which do not include domestic container movements. Exported loaded TEUs fell by the same percentage to 621,775, according to the SCT figures. Overall traffic for the five months was up 0.6 percent to 1.6 million TEUs.

“The decline in exports of containerized trade volume reflects weakness in demand in Asia, Europe and elsewhere in Latin America as those countries struggle to sustain growth in 2016,” said, Paul Bingham, vice president at Economic Development Research Group, Inc., a Boston-based specialty transportation economics firm.

However, he added, the increased strength of the Mexican peso against the dollar helped boost imports and hurt exports until the peso slipped in June, he said.