Level of connectivity of the port of Mazatlán, Mexico: towards the Pacific Basin

Abstract

Since the ports of Mexico have a coastline to two oceans, they are geostrategic and play a relevant role in their economy, hence their connectivity is a topic of interest that allows us to understand their territorial configurations and determine the dimensions of their connectivity. This work refers to the multipurpose port of Mazatlán, located towards the Mexican Pacific Basin. The Average Index Value methodology is applied to observe the behavior of different indicators by converting them into dimensionless and analyzing seven components of the Online Transport Connectivity Index that was modified and adapted for this research to obtain a typology for the seven most important ports from the Pacific coast. From this perspective, the following objectives are pursued: to highlight the importance of its geographical location; make a comparison between these ports to contextualize the one under study, obtain their level of connectivity with different ports in the world in terms of imports and exports, and detect their regional scope. The results obtained show the importance of the port of Mazatlán, whose multiscale connectivity reveals competitiveness in maritime transport logistics chains based on registered commercial development, however, considered only regional and not global in scope.