Container movement at ports in Latin America and the Caribbean grew just 1.7 percent in 2013, confirming the slowdown in the region's foreign trade, the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean said Wednesday. That figure was significantly lower than the 14 percent growth in port activity in both 2010 and 2011 and the 5.9 percent expansion in 2012, Santiago-based ECLAC said. For its Latin American and the Caribbean Container Port throughput ranking for 2013, ECLAC studied container movement at 80 of the region's terminals, where operations in 2013 amounted to 46.6 million TEUs (the standard unit of measurement, equivalent to containers of 20 feet). The ranking is based on information ECLAC compiled directly from local and national port authorities. The top 30 ports, whose level of container movement ranged from roughly 500,000 to 3 million TEUs, accounted for nearly 82 percent of the region's container operations. Port activity relative to the previous year varied widely throughout the region in 2013, according to ECLAC's study. The Chilean ports of Puerto Angamos, Arica, Coronel and San Antonio, for example, posted double- or even triple-digit growth due to the success of their projects and commercial management. Freeport, Bahamas, and Havana, Cuba, bucked a downward trend for the Caribbean as a whole by growing 24.8 percent and 10 percent, respectively, while in Brazil the biggest expansion in container movement occurred at Itapoa (up 72.1 percent) and Fortaleza (up 32.8 percent). EFE