Time is relative, especially for a container that is imported through one of the main ports in Mexico.

In June of this year, a container took an average of 5 hours, 31 minutes and 16 seconds to be dislodged by a motor transport unit in the ports of Manzanillo, Lázaro Cárdenas, Veracruz and Altamira , a time 10.27% longer compared to the record of a month earlier, when it averaged 4 hours, 57 minutes and 35 seconds .

This monthly measurement that T21 began publishing since April of this year is obtained from data provided by motor transport lines and geolocation companies with activities in these ports. For the sixth month of 2024, the reference of 10,950 maneuvers was obtained : Manzanillo (4,483), Lázaro Cárdenas (4,367), Veracruz (1,861) and Altamira (240) .

The number of maneuvers analyzed in this exercise has also shown a monthly increase of 34.9% , since in May the reference of eight thousand 114 maneuvers was obtained.

These average times in ports are obtained from the hours spent for a motor transport unit segmented into waiting, maneuvering and customs activities. In this case, the average of the four ports in waiting times was 1 hour, 16 minutes and 57 seconds; in maneuver 1 hour, 20 minutes and 42 seconds; and at customs 2 hours, 53 minutes and 58 seconds.

The relativity in port attention times occurs when the gaze becomes sharper in each of them and in the different segments measured.

In this case, the average time of the four ports has been pressured upwards by the long permanence of the units in customs activities, mainly in Altamira and Lázaro Cárdenas , where 3 hours, 6 minutes and 16 seconds and 3 hours, 15 minutes and 17 seconds, respectively.

Last May, the customs time for Lázaro Cárdenas had been three hours, 7 minutes and 6 seconds , while in Altamira it was 2 hours 45 minutes and 24 seconds.

Specialists consulted by T21 have commented that the increase in the handling of import containers in Mexican ports is mainly due to the effect of nearshoring (relocation of production lines) and the strength of the domestic consumer market , where in both cases the introduction of goods originating in Asian countries.

The customs authorities installed in the ports, in the hands of personnel from the Ministry of the Navy since this six-year term, have had to navigate a long learning curve due to their lack of knowledge in this area , which has been reflected in a setback in the trade facilitation of Mexico. At least the World Bank has reflected this in its last Logistics Performance Index of 2023, where it placed the country in position 66, when in 2018 it had established itself in 51st.

The four ports that are presented in this measurement handled one million 680 thousand 428 TEUs (20-foot containers) or 90.3% of the total import TEUs that all Mexican ports received (one million 859 thousand 476 20-foot containers) during the period from January to June of this year, according to data from the General Coordination of Ports and Merchant Marine .

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El cargo Altamira and Lázaro Cárdenas put pressure on truck service times apareció primero en T21.

The ports of Altamira and Mazatlán have taken a greater participation in port maneuvers for the automotive industry in terms of finished vehicles for import and export.

Altamira registers an advance of 52.1% in the first five months of this year compared to the same period last year, with 209 thousand 265 units operated, mostly for shipments abroad (205 thousand 664 units), according to data from the General Coordination of Ports and Merchant Marine (CGPMM) , of the Secretary of the Navy (Semar) .

Taking into account that the ports on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico operated 581,593 vehicles in the reference period, Altamira had a participation of 35.9%, while last year it was 26.6 percent.

Meanwhile, the port of Mazatlán has operated 78,249 units in the period January-May 2024, an annual growth of 73.1 percent.

Contrary to Altamira, most of the vehicles that Mazatlán operated were in import services, with 75,826 units .

The units that were maneuvered in Mazatlán in the first five months of the year give it a share of 22.9% with respect to the total registered by the Mexican Pacific ports, while last year it was barely 12.9 percent.

Both ports have served as an outlet for other ports that are traditionally used by shipping and automotive lines for the embarkation or disembarkation of new units, such as Veracruz or Lázaro Cárdenas, and which have even recorded negative numbers.

The first of them, Veracruz, added 330,343 vehicles in the reference period, an annual decline of 11.7 percent. The second, Lázaro Cárdenas, registered 261,742 units or 13.3% less.

In total, Mexican ports have added 922,623 units from January to May 2024 , with an annual increase of 6.9 percent.

According to statistics from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) , of the 585,721 new units that have been marketed in Mexico in the first five months of this year, 66.4% of them have been imported into the country ; a similar proportion was observed in sales for all of 2023.

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El cargo Altamira and Mazatlán Ports Gain Share in Car Movement apareció primero en T21.