Mexican ports had a stellar 2017 for container handling, with a 12% increase to reach 6.4 million TEUs for the year. Yet, there was a marked slowdown at year end with a rise of just 6% in December, resulting from a 1% drop in exports from the Pacific coast ports. Lazaro Cardenas saw the biggest decline with a 39% slump in exports, though Altamira (2x the handling of Cardenas) only improved by 1%. Exports through Cardenas have fallen for nine straight months, and were 21% lower than in 2016 overall. A drop in shipments to China were to blame, with a 27% slide making Colombia the most impo...