According to the World Bank´s Logistics Performance Index El Salvador by 2023 had a score of 2.7. The country was placed as the second country with most difficulties to get into the global economy through commerce. This was due to the low logistics performance.
On the roads side, El Salvador in 2015 was the second country of the region for having the best roads. As of 2017 the total of paved roads was 3,748.89kms. By 2020, the country accounts 4,033.25km paved roads and 2,394.76km of non-paved roads. Due to the increase of traffic, new roads had to be open, i.e.: peripheral rings of Sonsonate and San Miguel.
As of 2019, El Salvador´s traffic has increased not only by the increase of vehicles, but also due to the public transportation disorder and its contamination due to the bad conditions of the buses. According to the vice-Ministry of Transportation the number of vehicles in 2019 was 1,237,000 with a monthly increase of 1.2%, which means 8,000 vehicles a month. This increase of vehicles has also congested the two main roads (littoral and Pan-American), which also is occupied by heavy trucks traveling along the central American countries.
El Salvador has two ports, Puerto de Acajutla and La Union. Acajutla port is the main port fully working receiving cargo ships. El Puerto de La Union was constructed by JICA (2005), however it operates an average of 8 ships a month. It is expected that this year it can operate in a project together with Port Calderas in Costa Rica. The project is to transport loaded trucks on a ferry between the two countries. It is worth to mention that at the same time the port of La Union was under construction, the Ministry of Education launched Logistics as a career to study so there would be prepared personnel to work on said port. Unfortunately, most of the graduates had to find jobs in other areas or are jobless.
At the moment El Salvador has the following ongoing projects:
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A second USA Millennium project to improve the Litoral highway, and such the improvement of commerce on that area.
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A ferry between La Union port in El Salvador and Calderas Port in Costa Rica for the use of a ferry to transport loaded trucks. This will enable the transit that is blocked at the border Nicaragua-Costa Rica.
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MOARG International Airport is still expanding, operating at 100%. The improvements are more space in the waiting area, more shops and expanded space for more planes.
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Construction of a peripheral ring road in San Miguel area for heavy transport go straight to El Amatillo border. This will help to decongest La Ruta Militar road, which crosses around San Miguel.
