April container volumes surge at Port of New York-New Jersey

The busiest container port on the U.S. East Coast saw surging container volume in April.

The Port of New York and New Jersey handled 751,194 twenty-foot equivalent units in April as shippers continued to frontload imports ahead of tariffs on Chinese goods.

The total was an increase of 24% from April 2019 prior to the pandemic and a 6% gain from April 2024, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Over the first four months of the year, the port handled 2,954,913 TEUs. This marked a 23% jump from the same period of 2019 and an increase of 9% from the first four months of 2024.

Container rates tracked by SONAR paralleled the April gains as container rates from Yantian, China, to New York-New Jersey staged a “V shape-plus” recovery after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on April 27 said “there is a path” to a tariff agreement with China. Rates increased from $3,826 on April 28 to $4,348 on May 1.

Find more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

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