Tacoma’s box traffic up 8.8%

   The Port of Tacoma said it experienced a 4 percent increase in container volume, to 109,597 TEUs, in January compared to a year earlier on the strength of inbound box shipments, which were up 12.4 percent to 39,386 TEUs. 
   Popular import shipments were industrial equipment, toys and electronics, the port authority said.
   Full export containers grew 4.1 percent to 27,714 TEUs. Combined international volume for full containers increased 8.8 percent.
   On the downside, the port reported a 5 percent decrease in domestic container volumes to Alaska and Hawaii to 31,732 TEUs.
   Intermodal volumes rose 19 percent year-over-year to 27,235 lifts, the port said. A portion of the intermodal volume is domestic business.
   The number of autos crossing the docks fell 26.3 percent to 7,421 units.
   Overall, the port’s tonnage grew 8 percent to 1.4 million tons, with breakbulk volumes jumping 66 percent to 10,575 short tons and log exports up 60 percent to 28,804 short tons.
   The port said it expects to experience slight declines in container and intermodal volumes in February because factories in China closed for two weeks for the Chinese New Year, reducing the amount of goods in the pipeline.
   Tacoma has yet to recover from the drop in trade due to the global recession, with container volumes almost half a million less than the peak in 2007. Last year, container throughput inched up to 1.48 million TEUs from 1.45 million TEUs in 2010.