LATIN AMERICA · BUSINESS
Key Facts
—The ranking: New regional data ranks Santos, Manzanillo, Cartagena, Callao and Panama’s MIT as Latin America’s five busiest container ports in 2024.
—The leader: Brazil’s Santos handled about 5.48 million containers, far ahead of the field.
—The source: The figures come from the UN’s regional economic body, CEPAL, in its FAL Bulletin 414, measured in standard container units (TEU).
—The Pacific pivot: Peru’s Callao held fourth, while two Mexican and Panamanian hubs anchor the Pacific and Caribbean trade lanes.
—The disruptor: Peru’s new Chinese-built Chancay megaport could reach 3.5 million containers a year by 2032, reshuffling the table.
A new regional ranking confirms which gateways move the most cargo between Latin America and the world. The order is familiar at the top, but a Chinese-financed newcomer on Peru’s coast threatens to redraw it within a decade.
Latin America’s five busiest container ports
The UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, known by its Spanish acronym CEPAL, has published its latest port ranking in FAL Bulletin 414, ordering the region’s terminals by container throughput in 2024. The measure is the TEU, or twenty-foot equivalent unit, the standard industry yardstick for a single container. By that count, five ports stand above the rest, spread across Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Panama.
The list is a map of how the region connects to Asia, North America and Europe: Atlantic giants moving Brazilian and Colombian trade, Pacific hubs handling the booming flow of goods to and from China, and the Panama crossroads linking both oceans. The full ranking is below.
Santos, the regional heavyweight
Brazil’s Port of Santos, the gateway for São Paulo’s industrial and agricultural heartland, tops the table by a wide margin, handling 5,484,829 containers in 2024. That confirms its standing as the busiest port in Latin America and underlines Brazil’s weight in regional maritime logistics; Santos alone moves close to 30% of the country’s foreign trade.
Mexico’s Manzanillo follows in second with 3,924,501 containers, powered by its role in Pacific trade and Mexico’s heavy import flows from Asia. Colombia’s Bahía de Cartagena takes third at 3,701,044, a Caribbean hub tightly woven into the Panama Canal ecosystem and a key transshipment point.
The Pacific contenders
Peru’s Callao holds fourth with 3,074,530 containers, keeping the position it reached in 2023 and cementing its role as one of the principal maritime nodes on South America’s Pacific coast. Rounding out the top five is Panama’s Manzanillo International Terminal, distinct from the Mexican port of the same name, at 2,712,653, a reminder of how central Panama remains to inter-ocean shipping.
Together, these five terminals concentrate the largest container volumes in Latin America and the Caribbean. The geographic split is telling: two Atlantic-facing ports, two Pacific gateways and the Panama hinge, each tethered to a different slice of global trade.
The Chinese megaport that could redraw the map
The ranking also flags a disruptor. Peru’s Chancay, a deepwater megaport about 80 kilometers north of Lima, opened in November 2024 and is controlled by the Chinese state shipping group COSCO, which holds 60% alongside Peruvian miner Volcan. Built at a total cost of around $3.5bn, it handled roughly 336,000 containers in its first year, but its design capacity is far larger.
CEPAL highlights Chancay’s strategic potential, with projections that it could move up to 3.5 million containers a year once fully built out, targeted for 2032. At that scale it would rival today’s top-five entrants and become the premier deepwater port on South America’s Pacific coast, capable of berthing the largest vessels and cutting sailing time to Shanghai to about 23 days.
Why the ranking matters
Port throughput is a proxy for economic gravity. The terminals at the top of the list are the physical chokepoints through which the region’s exports reach world markets and its imports arrive, so their capacity, efficiency and ownership carry strategic weight well beyond logistics. Santos is already expanding, with a new terminal expected to lift its container capacity by half.
Chancay sharpens the stakes by adding a geopolitical layer: a Chinese-controlled gateway positioned to redirect Pacific trade flows and pressure established hubs such as Callao and Chile’s ports. The 2024 ranking is a snapshot of the present order; the more interesting question is how different the table will look once Chancay reaches full strength.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the busiest port in Latin America?
Brazil’s Port of Santos, which handled about 5.48 million containers in 2024, far ahead of any other, according to CEPAL’s FAL Bulletin 414. It is followed by Manzanillo in Mexico and Cartagena in Colombia.
What does TEU mean?
TEU stands for twenty-foot equivalent unit, the standard measure of a single shipping container. Ports are ranked by how many TEU they handle in a year.
Where does Peru’s Callao rank?
Callao ranks fourth, with about 3.07 million containers in 2024, holding the position it reached in 2023 as a leading Pacific hub in South America.
Could the ranking change soon?
Likely. Peru’s Chinese-built Chancay megaport, which opened in 2024, could handle up to 3.5 million containers a year by 2032, enough to challenge today’s leaders and reshape Pacific trade.
Connected Coverage
For more on the region’s trade gateways, see how Santos is expanding capacity and China’s growing role at Santos.
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