The main Mexican ports have started 2025 with an increase in the time of attention to cargo transportation, pressured by the registration of Manzanillo , the one with the highest commercial activity in the country.
The Average Time Index for Motor Transport in Ports (ITPAP) , prepared by T21 Business Intelligence, has averaged 12 hours and 40 minutes in January of this year, a variation of 316% compared to the reading from a month earlier when the best time of all 2024 was even obtained (with 3 hours, one minute and 50 seconds).
The time recorded in the first month of this year is also far from the 4.70 hours (decimal) that occurred in January 2024.
The ITPAP, the only one of its kind in the country, is based on the handling times for import cargo at the ports of Manzanillo and Lázaro Cárdenas , on the Pacific side, and Altamira and Veracruz , on the Gulf of Mexico.
The indicator gathers monthly information provided by trucking companies and GPS vehicle tracking companies; it focuses on the average time spent by tractor-trailers, broken down into three critical categories in the merchandise collection process: maneuvering, waiting, and time in customs.
The 12 hours and 40 minutes that ITPAP averaged in the first month of this year were divided into 29.43% waiting (3 hours, 43 minutes and 49 seconds), 19.08% maneuvering (two hours, 25 minutes and 9 seconds) and 51.49% customs time (6 hours, 31 minutes and 34 seconds).
For January 2025, the indicator took as a reference the data of 2,606 motor transport movements in the ports analyzed.
The ports of Manzanillo, Lázaro Cárdenas, Altamira and Veracruz handled 63.6% of the total import cargo volume registered by all ports in January 2025, which was nine million 440 thousand 815 tons, according to statistics from the General Coordination of Ports and Merchant Marine (CGPMM) , an office of the Secretariat of the Navy (Semar) .
Taking as a reference the number of import containers operated, measured in 20-foot containers (TEU), the four ports handled 90.5% of the total nationwide that was handled in January of this year or 311,012 TEU.
Manzanillo, “in the clouds”
But the case that stood out during the first month of 2025 was that of the port of Manzanillo, with an average total time of 23 hours, its second longest time since the ITPAP was prepared.
This time was divided into 4.1 decimal hours in maneuvers, 6.7 hours waiting and 12.1 hours in customs.
The port of Manzanillo received a total of 147,342 TEUs in January of this year , 13.7% more than in the same period last year.
The other ports also showed an individual average with significant increases compared to the record of a month earlier : Altamira with 7 hours 43 minutes (+115%), Lázaro Cárdenas with 6 hours and 57 minutes (+76%) and Veracruz with 4 hours and 9 minutes (+55%).
