In Uruguay, the Port of Nueva Palmira registered a 14% decline in total traffic in 2024 to 7.99mt (million tonnes). In 2023 it had handled 9.34mt. Overall Uruguayan exports shipped through the port grew by 76%, amounting to 5.3mt, although transshipment cargo declined by 58%.
Nueva Palmira is predominantly an agribulk port, and these commodities did well on the year. The best performer was miscellaneous bulks, which increased by 397% to 126 tonnes, although soybeans performed well too, growing by 293% to 2.11mt. Barley grew by 230% to 414,677 tonnes and wheat by 76% to 1.17mt.
There were two new bulk commodities handled on the year: corn (127,858 tonnes) and soybean meal (6,589 tonnes).
Canola shipments, however, decreased by 67% (82,925 tonnes), those of fertilizer by 56% (15,465 tonnes), malt by 4% (249,954 tonnes), and cellulose by 1% (1.11 tonnes).
As for transshipment cargo, miscellaneous cargo grew by 134% to 248,664 tonnes, coke by 32% to 136,829 tonnes, and soybean meal 6% to 203,368 tonnes. 5,015 tonnes of malt were also rotated out.
There were also notable declines in hub cargo. Corn shipments fell by 96% to 7,300 tonnes, iron ore by 70% to 1.36 million tonnes, soybeans by 55% to 281,676 tonnes, and fertilizer by 19% to 436,351 tonnes.