Growth and strong economy has been reflected in Ecuador, since the year 2000. When a dollarization process started and has placed them as the eighth best economy in South America. Despite this, its economy is still dependent on the export of raw materials, mainly petroleum and bananas. This boom in the exports has taken place along with a rise in ocean freight to Ecuador.
The significant role of the exports and its geographical location, very close to the Panama Canal, made the Government of Ecuador impulse the upgrade and update of the port infrastructures. This let the freight forwarding service develop in a more competitive way, gaining both in quality and in productivity.
A Full Container Load (FCL) container service is one of the most popular options when shipping cargo to Ecuador.
If you’re shipping in a 20-ft container, your cargo must fit on 6 standard pallets, or 12 standard pallets if you’re shipping in a 40-ft container. A standard American pallet measures 39.37 in. wide and 47.24 in. long.
FCL shipping services to Ecuador guarantees that your cargo travels safely in its own container.
The first question you should ask yourself when planning an ocean transportation to Ecuador is whether doing it in an FCL or in a Less Container Load (LCL), also known as “groupage”.
Shipping a container to Ecuador does not mean that you have to fill it completely. With FCL shipping, you will not be sharing the container with other shippers. This reduces the risk of contamination and damages. However, this may be a more expensive option than LCL shipping.
Under LCL shipping, your cargo takes up only a portion of the space in a shipping container, the rest of which is occupied by cargo from other shippers. This means there’s a higher chance of contact, contamination, and damage.
The advantage to this is that it is often the more cost-effective option for low-volume goods as you only pay for the space you occupy within the container. This is unlike shipping with FCL, which you pay for the entire container, whether or not you fill the entire container.
Due to the importance of the exports for Ecuador’s economy, seaports play a very important role in the economy, as exports use its ports, both seaports and fluvial ones, for its development. The main seaports in Ecuador are:
Guayaquil Port is the most important export seaport in Ecuador. Through it, more than 70% of its foreign trade takes place. It was built from 1959 to 1963.
The location of the Port of Guayaquil is ideal for the container traffic between Asia and the American continent, especially for those that have the Pacific Coast as destination. Besides, its closeness to the Panama Canal makes it very attractive as a logistics hub of the ocean transportation between South America and the East coast of the continent, as well towards Europe and Asia.
The Port of Guayaquil has modern infrastructure, ideal for the development of the international trade. In addition, it has a wide range of specialized services, making it the ideal destination for ocean freight to Ecuador.
Port Bolívar the second most important seaport in Ecuador and the top one concerning banana exports. About 80% of the banana production of Ecuador is exported from this port, whose main destination is Europe.
Due to this fact, one of the most important areas of Port Bolívar are its storing facilities. More than 27000 mm2 of warehouses and yards, highlighting the six warehouses for palletizing bananas, with an overall surface of more than 14000m2.
Besides, it has two docks (Muelle de Espigón and Muelle Marginal Longitudinal), with an overall length of almost 500 meters. Another dock serves tourism services, with a length of 60 meters.
The Port of Manta is the first tourism and fishing seaport in Ecuador. Its closeness to one of the most important airports in Ecuador make this area a first class logistics hub.
Its geostrategic location only at 600 miles from the Panama Canal makes it a linking point for the foreign trade of Ecuador with the rest of the world. It is equidistant of the markets does this means or reference to how close to these countries? of Colombia, Panama or Mexico in the Western Coast of the Pacific Ocean; New York or Miami in the East Coast of the Atlantic Ocean and Peru and Ecuador in South America. Besides, it is the closest seaport to Asia in the West Coast of South America.
It is a multipurpose seaport/terminal with modern facilities, which facilitate the access of all kind of boats. This ensures easy maneuvers for the ships; loading, unloading and provisioning operations, as well as having the appropriate conditions of security and mobility for the arrival of tourism cruises and tourists.
It has two pier-class, 200-meter long docks, able to receive 4 ships at the same time, so 800 linear meters can be used for container ships, fishing ships and cruises. It also has another 620 linear meters for fishing and cabotage activities.
We offer affordable and efficient ocean freight services to Ecuador from a wide range of ports all over the world. These include ports located in:
To obtain more information on rates, consult our ship container rates for your ocean freight to Ecuador.