News / Europe-LatAm volume growth stalls, but shippers remain hopeful

Santos Port. Photo; Dreamstime.com

Coming off the back of a strong 2025 it is perhaps not surprising that the growth momentum on the Europe-Latin America tradelane has stalled – but there appears still reason for shippers and their forwarding partners to be hopeful, even if volumes have struggled.

Latest data from Container Trade Statistics (CTS) paints something of a grim picture on the Europe-Latam leg, with volumes down to 127,100 teu in January, a year-on-year decline of 10.6%, with February’s falling 6.1%, to 150,000 teu.

But the same cannot be said on the reverse leg, where the momentum generated in the closing months of 2025 continued into this year, with Latam-Europe volumes climbing 9.7% year on year, to 191,700 teu in January, and 4.6%, to 186,600 teu, in February.

Given that CTS data operates two months in arrears, it is something of a wait-and-see on how performance has been impacted by the outbreak of war in the Persian Gulf, but anecdotal evidence suggests the situation has, at least, not gone into reverse.

AGL Cargo’s Jackson Campos told The Loadstar that, this month there may not have been a “strong surge”, but “moderate growth”, fuelled in part by continuing demand for agribusiness and industrial cargo.

This reflected the situation at the tailend of 2025, as agriculture proved itself one of, if not the, most reliable sectors as far as Latin American exports were concerned, with Brazil-EU “the main corridor and support from Mexico and Colombia”, Mr Campos added.

His perception of the rate situation supported the lack of movement recorded by CTS since the turn of the year, and noted that, despite a slight increase due to the introduction of carrier capacity control policies, “ocean freight rates are stable”.

Mr Campos added: “Airfreight remains firm, especially for pharma and high-value goods. Capacity is generally available, but uneven, with occasional space issues in ocean and constraints for temperature-controlled air cargo.

“Bottlenecks are mostly operational, including inland transport in LatAm and regulatory processes in Europe. Overall, the market remains cautious amid geopolitical and cost uncertainties.”

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