Historically, Panama has served as a transhipment bridge for a great quantity of foods, goods, and autos that are shipped from one continent to another.
Nevertheless, due to the world crisis and the diminishment in the consumption of some countries of the region, the movement of these goods has decreased.
According to the figures from the Maritime Authority of Panama (AMP), the movement of containers in the month of February registered an increase of 3.1%.  Nevertheless, the amount of full containers decreased by 15% and the number of empty containers increased by 46.18%.
According to the figures of the AMP, the port where most containers (of 20, 40, 43 and 45 feet) were transferred  is Panama Ports Company (PPC) in Balboa.  In that terminal 184,483 units were moved, increasing by 0.1% with respect to January and February of 2008.
The port that PPC manages in Cristóbal transported 29,754 containers, incresaing by 101.1% with respect to the previous year.
In the case of the Manzanillo International Terminal (MIT), 145,570 containers were moved, an increase of 12.6%, at the same time Colon Port Terminal (CPT) moved 241 units, an increase of 14.8% with respect to 2008.
Colon Container Terminal (CCT) has transferred 47,230, registering a decrease of 27.6%.
Embarkation and Disembarkation
The traffic of containers for disembarkation was 186,023, increasing 4.7%, and the containers for embarkation alon moved 222,502 units, which represents an increase of 1.8% compared to the same period in 2008.
In February there was an increase of 1.6% in TEU’S (containers of 20 feet), which represents the movement of 690,615 TEU’s, full and empty.
For disembarkation, 312,940 TEU’S were registered, an increase of 2.4% and for embarkation, 377,675 TEU’s were transferred, increasing by only 0.8%
PPC Balboa moved a total of 316,700 TEU’s, decreasing by 1% and Cristóbal translated 50,019 TEU’s, an increase of 102.4% with respect to last year.
As for MIT, it registered 243,437 TEU’s, an increase of 9.3%, CCT moved 79,727 TEU’s, a decrease of 26.9% and CPT transferred 250 TEU’s an increase of 16.8% with respect to 2008.

Market Projection
According to the president of the Maritime Chamber of Panama (CMP), Rubén Karamañites, the fall in cargo has been concentrated in the movement of merchandice from the Far East and European markets toward the United States.
“The projection and increase of Panamanian Ports should be conservative, now that we have experienced lows in the handling of cargo, just as we have seen in the empty containers imported in January and February of this year,” clarified Karamañites.
The CMP has observed an increase in the volume of merchandise in the ports that handle cargo for South America and the Caribbean.
Karamañites explains that as a result of the disequilibrium caused by the crisis, the empty containers were those that were moved the most during the first months of the year.
“It’s part of the cycle of rotation of the markets, which comes as a clear reflection of the reduction of the tonnage that is moving via sea,” he affirmed.
Rommel Troestsch, manager of mrketing and customer service of PPC, assures that currently they are negotiating with some shipping lines, of which one aleady confirmed that it will soon arrive at the ports of Balboa and Cristobal, to counteract the impact of the crisis and the seasonal low.
“The decrease in the service at Balboa is a product of the season and the reorganization that shippers are making in order to face the crisis,” explained Troestsch.

Likewise, Carlos Urriola, general manager of MIT, indicated that this year has been conservative and has increased very little, but it’s a different type of rise, characterized by the movement of empty containers.
“This is due to the fact that 2008 was a good year, but the shipping lines, what they did was return their containers in order to be able to fill them t the original destination, when there is a recovery.”
While the economic performance of Latin America is still positive, it will not effect the movement of containers.
Martes Financiero tried to learn the opinion of CCT, but was informed that they could not give out the requested information related to the performance of the industry.