Port of Oakland’s box volumes slip in June

The Northern California port’s container volumes were hindered by a slowdown in empty containers moving through the port.    The Port of Oakland’s container throughput slipped 4.6 percent year-over-year in June to 194,298 TEUs, primarily due to a 15 percent drop in empty export containers handled, the port authority reported Monday.
   Loaded container volumes for the month fell 2.6 percent year-over-year, mostly because of fewer exports.
   For the first six months of 2016, volumes at the Californian port rose 6 percent from the corresponding period in 2015 to 1.15 million TEUs.
   On a loaded basis, volumes rose 10.1 percent year-over-year for the first six months of 2016.
   “These container statistics are encouraging in light of the current state of volatility within the global maritime industry,” Port of Oakland Maritime Director John Driscoll said in a statement. “Were are continuing to grow – a sign of the robust regional economy in Northern California and also of strong agricultural exports.”
   Oakland has experienced four consecutive months of container declines. The six-month results are based on extremely strong productivity in January and February, which were abnormal months in 2015 due to a dock worker dispute that slowed container handling to a crawl and forced many shippers to divert cargo to East Coast, Gulf, Canadian and Mexican ports.