By the end of the third quarter of 2026, the ports of Callao, Paita, Chancay, and Pisco improved their position in the global maritime connectivity ranking. The incorporation of new services and the development of cabotage open opportunities to consolidate a more integrated port network.
Port connectivity is a fundamental component for foreign trade competitiveness. A higher frequency of services, diversity of routes, and connections with other ports expand the alternatives available to exporters and importers, and favor greater integration with global supply chains.
Maritime connectivity indicators developed by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) allow us to approximate this evolution. In the third quarter of 2026, China once again led the Liner Shipping Connectivity Index (LSCI), with 1,342 points, followed by South Korea (635) and Singapore (626).
Peru ranked 40th in the LSCI, with 137.1 points, and maintained fifth place in Latin America and the Caribbean compared to the end of 2025, after Panama (24th, with 221 points), Colombia (26th, with 211.2), Mexico (27th, with 201.1), and Brazil (32nd, with 165.1).
At the port level, Callao reached 65th place in the global Port Liner Shipping Connectivity Index (PLSCI) ranking, six positions above the end of 2025, and its score increased from 297 to 305.3. With this, it remained the fourth best-connected port in Latin America and the Caribbean, behind Cartagena (1st in the region and 47th globally), Santos (2nd and 49th), and Manzanillo, in Panama (3rd and 59th).
This performance coincides with the incorporation of new connections. Since April, Ocean Network Express (ONE) has included Callao in its weekly AX4 service between Asia and the Latin American west coast, which has connections with Shanghai, Ningbo, Qingdao, and Busan, to which Yokohama was subsequently added.
Paita recorded one of the largest advances, moving from 227th to 188th and increasing its score from 115 to 146.7. Regionally, it advanced from 37th to 33rd. This increased connectivity is joined, since July, by COSCO Shipping's weekly CHX3 service, which connects Paita with Chancay and allows connecting cargo from northern Peru with long-distance services destined for Asia.
Chancay showed the greatest improvement among the main Peruvian terminals. It moved from global position 281 to 220 between the end of 2025 and the third quarter of 2026, while its score increased from 90.1 to 119. In the region, it advanced from 51st to 38th. Its integration into services such as CMA CGM's ACSA1, which connects Asia with Chancay and Callao, demonstrates how both terminals can be part of the same international service network.
On the other hand, Pisco also improved from 302nd to 262nd globally and from 53rd to 48th regionally, with a score that increased from 78.3 to 95. During 2026, the shipping company ZIM incorporated the General San Martín Port Terminal into its Colibrí Express service, with connections to the US East Coast and Canada, including Miami, Philadelphia, New York, and Halifax.
The next challenge is to complement these international connections with greater articulation among Peruvian ports themselves. Last July, the Ministry of Transport and Communications presented the National Strategy for the Promotion of Maritime Cabotage, aimed at developing the transport of goods between national ports and making better use of existing infrastructure.
Cabotage can contribute to the development of a hub and spoke model, in which certain ports function as main nodes that concentrate cargo (Callao-Chancay) and connect with international routes, while feeder services link these nodes with other national terminals. The new Paita-Chancay service shows the potential of this logic.
Strengthening this network would expand logistical alternatives outside Lima, make better use of the installed capacity of ports, and bring the main international routes closer to the producing regions. The recent advance in connectivity represents an opportunity to move from having increasingly better-connected ports to consolidating a truly integrated port system.
