Colombia’s ports: from an obstacle to a pillar of exports and spare installed capacity

September 16, 2023

Colombia’s ports are fundamental for the country’s progress in exports. More than 90% of all exports were shipped through them in 2022.

In September, the largest ship ever to come to South America arrived in Buenaventura, longer than three soccer fields. Colombia’s ports continue to impress tourists and locals alike with their imposing size and capacity.

More than 90% of all exports were shipped through Colombia’s ports in 2022, as can be calculated from cross-referencing DANE information with data from the Superintendence of Transportation. This shows the great importance they have for our country’s exports.

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Colombia’s ports have improved over the last 30 years

A port is a place on the coast that allows vessels to easily perform loading and unloading operations. They can be natural or artificial.

Colombia’s ports are managed through concessions. In our country there are 62 port concessions currently operating, explains Carolina Herrera, director of the Maritime and Port Chamber of ANDI.

Of these, 42 are public service facilities, i.e., they are used for import, export and transshipment by anyone who wants to use the services. The other 20 concessions can only be used by companies linked to the port association.

In May of this year, the ANIF Research Center published a study on the evolution of Colombia’s ports. The main conclusion is that there have been great advances in the last 30 years.

According to the study, “ports have ceased to be an obstacle and have become a tool that catapults Colombian products abroad”.

They have improved so much that they have become a reflection of how much remains to be done in terms of exports, as the country is currently experiencing an underutilization of its capacity.

Conpes 4118 states that today the country uses only 50% of the installed port capacity, an issue that leads Herrera to point out that the port sector cannot “continue to grow in a disorganized and unplanned manner”.

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In the World Economic Forum’s measurement of port infrastructure, Colombia went from having a rating of 2.6 out of 5 in 2008 to 3.8 in the 2018 evaluation.

In exports, the improvement is evident in the time required to trade, which includes the required documents, border procedures and internal transportation. It went from a duration of 34 days, in 2006, to 14 days in 2015, according to ANIF’s publication.

The increased efficiency of Colombia’s ports allowed that, in the World Bank’s Container Port Performance Index, the Port of Cartagena ranked fifth in 2023, among 348 ports evaluated, and above all European ports.

The importance of Colombia’s ports for exports

In 2022, Colombia exported a total of 102.2 million tons, according to DANE. That same year, 96.6 million tons left Colombia’s ports, according to the Superintendence of Transportation, representing 94% of all exports.

Compared to 2021, exports leaving Colombia’s ports increased by 0.04% in 2022, as 96.5 million tons were exported in 2021, according to the same Superintendence.

However, the quantities exported through the ports do not recover the pre-pandemic figures. In 2019, 128.2 million tons were exported through ports.

Most of Colombia’s exports shipped through ports are shipped through the Caribbean Sea. Ports in that region accounted for 95.4% of what was exported through ports in 2022. The remaining 4.6% left through the Pacific, mainly Buenaventura, according to the Superintendence of Transportation.

The main product exported through Colombia’s ports is coal, with a 55.6% share in 2022. It is followed by petroleum derivatives, with 15.7%, and oil with a 14.7% share, based on data from the Superintendency. Thereafter, no product had a share of more than 3% in 2022.

The pending challenges of Colombia’s ports

ANIF’s 2023 study found stagnation in costs to export from Colombia’s ports. In the last year calculated, 2015, costs were similar to those recorded in 2006, the first year measured by the study. In both years they were above USD $2,400 per container.

The other challenge is, of course, to take advantage of all the installed capacity they have.