The Latin quarter

摘要

The east coast South America to west coast South America intra-Americas trade is one of the most interesting and challenging in the world. Robert Ward reports on its development, growth prospects and future structure. Trade between the east coast of South America (ECSA) and countries on the west coast of the continent, notably, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia, has been growing, and more of it is being containerised. Thus its future prospects are encouraging. Nonetheless, it is a challenging route, with overland transport still very important, and the ocean carriers engaged in it are highly competitive. In addition, it is still fairly tightly regulated, with bi-lateral government agreements dominating proceedings in the all-important Chile/Brazil sector. Moreover, it involves diverse cultural, industrial and agricultrural regimes. The trade is currently worth an estimated 140,000TEU a year. While the majority of traffic is shipped around Cape Horn to/from the largest market Chile, approximately 30,000 TEU is routed north via the Panama Canal. This cargo mainly moves to/from Ecuador, Peru and Colombia.