**Table 34: Latin America and the Caribbean Share in World Port Throughput**

||**(2011)**<br>||
|---|---|---|
|**Region**|**Throughput**<br>**(Million TEUs)**|**Market Share**<br>**(%)**|
|Asia(excl. China)|175.9|31%|
|China|164|29%|
|North Europe|62|11%|
|Mediterranean|46.7|8%|
|North America|45|8%|
|South/Central America|36.2|6%|
|Other Regions|27.1|5%|
|Caribbean(excl. Panama)|5.1|1%|

_Source: Based on data from World Bank (2012b)._ The maritime network for containers in the Caribbean consists of two components: intercontinental traffic being transshipped through one of several transshipment hubs in the Caribbean, and the inter-island Caribbean feeder network that in the north has Miami as a main hub, and in the south Trinidad. The main Caribbean intercontinental hubs are The Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and, to a lesser extent Trinidad. For intra-Caribbean traffic Curaçao and Trinidad stand out as hubs.

This dual system defines two type of routes in the international maritime container network: Feeder routes (local routes), and main routes. Within the Caribbean system, this translates into three different route networks:

- the actual routes stopping at the smaller regional hubs and moving from island to island, bringing much needed imports into the Caribbean,

- the routes supplying the main hubs for the Caribbean, and

- the mainline routes that simply pass through the region, using important hubs for larger transshipment operations that are not related to imports or consumption within the Caribbean.

The routes are very different from routes found for passengers in air transport: in air transport, one can assume that a trip with more than three stops will be less likely, and most passengers are not likely to tolerate a high number of stops or transfer points. Globally, on average, a container ship makes six port calls before returning to its home port, and the Caribbean is close to that average with seven ports.

Intercontinental hubs have a very high volume of container ships that arrive from outside the Caribbean and go mainly between hubs. Kingston (Jamaica) is the most important intercontinental hub. The liner system supplying the intra-region or local hubs shows smaller volume routes of which some feed directly into some of the smaller Caribbean states. CMA-CGM, France, provides service into the French islands of Guadeloupe, Martinique, and St. Martin, in addition to the regional hub of Trinidad. Some of the same vessels that connect France to the French Caribbean islands also service some of the smaller island states.

The network in the Caribbean is often described as a feeder network, though in fact each of the small islands had only one known route deemed as feeder line in 2011, with the rest being termed main lines (Containerisation International Yearbook, 2012). This may be because of the complex systems of hubs: there are three main international gateway countries that supply the small island states: the United States (ports in Florida such as Miami, Riviera Beach, Ft, Lauderdale, and Portsmouth, Virginia being the most important), Trinidad, and Jamaica. In addition, smaller transfer hubs are located in Barbados and Vieux 80