News · Economy
More than 7,000 containers remain stranded outside Cuba after two shipping lines pulled out, IPS Cuba reports
Shipping lines Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM have suspended their operations to Cuba and more than 7,000 containers holding vehicles, clothing, electrical equipment and solar panels have been immobilized in other countries for more than five months, according to IPS Cuba, picked up by Infobae.
Shipping lines Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM have suspended their operations to Cuba and more than 7,000 containers with assorted cargo have been stranded in different countries for more than five months, according to IPS Cuba, picked up by Infobae. The goods include vehicles, clothing, electrical equipment and solar panels bought by traders, entrepreneurs and people who import informally.
"There are people whose shipments don't arrive: vehicles, clothing, electrical equipment or solar panels. They don't know when they'll get their investment back, while the dollar keeps rising, or how what they bought will get here," Ángel Miranda, a 60-year-old Cuban who travels to Panama up to three times a year to supply the private and informal sector, told IPS Cuba. For decades the so-called "mulas" formed a network of importers that made use of expanded travel and unaccompanied cargo shipments.
In September the deputy prime minister and minister of foreign trade and investment, Oscar Pérez-Oliva, said CMA CGM had resumed some operations, limited to food, medicines and supplies and at a frequency too low to cut the waiting list. The same official said that in July 3.5 million syringes were being held in Jamaican ports, along with parts for water and power equipment.
The effect reaches private businesses. Ernesto Vargas, 30, worked as a sales manager for a wholesaler that moved around five containers of flour a month: the operation stopped and has not recovered. The shortage of inputs cut supply, pushed prices up and forced activity to halt, as at the private bakery Pan de La Habana, with no reopening date. The Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy lists the difficulty of moving imported goods among the drivers of inflation.
As shipping with third countries narrows, trade with the United States grew to 876 million dollars between January and August, covering food, fuel, vehicles, equipment and power systems. According to the specialist site Mundo Marítimo, shipments between the two countries went from occasional runs to 326,587 metric tons on more than 200 itineraries through August, 60% more than in all of 2025. The World Food Programme office in the United States estimates that imports cover between 70% and 80% of the island's food needs.
Sources: Infobae · Serie Yamacoa: Dólar en el mercado informal (elTOQUE (tasa representativa))
Data updated: 2026-11-08T04:15:00.000Z