Handed a hypothetical unlimited budget to crisis-proof their companies, six logistics and retail leaders at TOC Americas in Cartagena split almost evenly between infrastructure and software, then split again over prediction versus reaction.
From AliExpress to Hapag-Lloyd, GEODIS, CargOK, Falabella and Dollar City, panellists at TOC Americas in Cartagena debated whether artificial intelligence, insurance, infrastructure or staff training offers the best defence against disruption.
Alfonso Salas of Grupo Puerto de Cartagena (GPC) told delegates at TOC Americas 2026 in Cartagena that a port's value lies in connectivity, not container volume alone.
Grupo Puerto de Cartagena expects to move a little more than 5 million containers this year, as Colombia’s port modernisation decree sets investment conditions alongside new performance commitments, Alfonso Salas said.
From Drewry’s volume data to PSA’s focus on culture, five panellists at TOC Americas in Cartagena set out contrasting takes on a trade outlook that keeps shifting beneath them.
Henry Ziemer of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies warned that Washington’s expectations for US ownership of Panama’s next port tenders could do more damage than the financing costs worrying the panel.
Giovanni Benedetti of Grupo Puerto de Cartagena told TOC Americas that tariff-driven swings in Brazilian transhipment and Colombian exports to Ecuador reversed within weeks, leaving no lasting pattern.
Nicolas Romero, head of Latin America for Pacific International Lines (PIL), told TOC Americas that disruption has become shipping's new normal, and that flexible fleets and terminals will profit from it.
At TOC Americas in Cartagena, GPC’s commercial and talent chiefs argued that ports will compete on artificial intelligence and people, not cranes, citing a 27% reliability figure and a three-pillar response to disruption.