PortMiami box volumes jump 20% in January

Fiscal year-to-date, container volumes have grown 8 percent at PortMiami, driven in part by an increase in medical instruments and devices imported from Costa Rica.    Container cargo volumes grew 19.9 percent at PortMiami in January to 91,717 TEUs, continuing a trend that helped the Florida port top 1 million TEUs in fiscal year 2015.
   The port has posted an 8 percent increase in box volume to 338,695 TEUs for the first few months of its fiscal year, which began in October.
   PortMiami handled 1 million containers in fiscal year 2014-15, a 15 percent increase after a couple of down years.
   In dollar terms, PortMiami experienced a 5.75 percent gain in cargo equal to $1.37 billion in the value of goods crossing its docks, according to a commentary by Ken Roberts, president of WorldCity, in the Miami Herald. Miami grew during a year when overall U.S. trade with the world fell 5.59 percent and many ports saw a decline in the value of their imports and exports. Only the ports of Charleston and Savannah saw their trade grow more rapidly than Miami, he said.
   WorldCity is a Miami-based media and event company focused on globalization that also compiles trade data for Miami and other major cities.
   Diversion of cargo from West Coast ports to avoid congestion, new capabilities to handle larger ships, including a new 50-foot harbor, on-dock rail infrastructure and service from the Florida East Coast Railway, and a new direct access tunnel that allows truck drivers to avoid downtown streets, have helped attract more shippers. Port officials say the opening of the expanded Panama Canal later this year will result in carriers adding Miami as a stop for big ships on all-water routes from Asia, resulting in more cargo business. PortMiami has hosted a greater number of container vessels with drafts in excess of 40 feet in the six months since the harbor deepening project was completed, according to port statistics.
   Port of Miami Terminal Operating Co.’s new long-term lease has also proven beneficial, officials say, because it gives carriers the certainty of dealing with a steady terminal partner.
   According to WorldCity’s analysis, the biggest single increase in cargo last year at PortMiami was from medical instruments and devices imported from Costa Rica. The value of imports from Costa Rica into PortMiami reached $489 million last year compared to $78 million in 2014, despite the fact that U.S. trade with Costa Rica overall fell more than 35 percent.   
   The publication said Miami’s Costa Rica gains came from capturing business from Port Everglades, 30 miles to the north.