SE ports enjoy rapid box growth compared to West Coast

The difference in port volumes can partly be explained by congestion problems out West.    Southeast and mid-Atlantic ports saw solid growth in November compared to West Coast ports, where business was flat or declined. Several eastern ports are cruising toward double-digit growth for the full year, as some shippers have diverted cargo to avoid congestion in Los Angeles and Long Beach.
   The Port of Charleston moved 144,218 TEUs last month, an increase of 8 percent over November 2013. It lifted 82,466 boxes, regardless of size, up 10 percent from the prior year. 
   Empty container volume jumped 26 percent, but the difference from ports along the West Coast is that their double-digit increases in empties was offset by low or falling volumes of loaded import and export containers. The Port of Charleston recorded gains of 9 percent for loaded export TEUs and 13.8 percent for loaded imports.
   For the first five months of the fiscal year, volumes are up 13 percent to 777,566 TEUs.
   The South Carolina Ports Authority also reported strong gains in non-containerized cargo, with Charleston handling 61,114 pier tons and the Port of Georgetown handling 48,917 tons in November, pushing tonnage nearly 29-percent higher than fiscal-year plans.   
   The Inland Port in Greer conducted 3,972 rail transfers last month. The facility is 47-percent ahead of plans with 21,686 lifts since July.
   Meanwhile, the port authority board approved $1.56 million in wharf repairs and improvements to the North Charleston Terminal in preparation for the transfer of three cranes from the Wando Welch Terminal. Wando Welch will undergo an $85 million upgrade, including the addition of larger ship-to-shore cranes.
   The board also passed a resolution to secure foreign trade zone status on three sites in York and Chester counties. (Learn more about the South Carolina Ports Authority strategic plans in the October feature “SCPA aims high.”)
   In November, the Port of Virginia handled 208,764 TEUs, up 8.2 percent from the prior year, making it the port’s fifth consecutive month of TEU volumes exceeding 200,000 units.
   Year-to-date, container growth is 7.2 percent, or 147,321 TEUs, ahead of last year’s pace, according to Virginia Port Authority data.
   Container volumes at the Port of Savannah were up 11.5 percent in November to 271,358 TEUs. Savannah has already surpassed last year’s total of 3.03 million TEUs with one month still to go in the year.
   The Maryland Port Administration is still trying to compile statistics on its November activity, but said the Port of Baltimore set a one-month record by handling 46,827 containers at its public marine terminals in October. The previous high for a month was 44,095 containers in July 2013.
   Baltimore is trending like many East Coast ports. The number of containers processed during the first 11 months of the year is up 10.3-percent over the same period in 2013, which was a record year for containers. 
   So far this year, 406,420 TEUs have moved across the Baltimore docks.
   Container volume in November at the Port of Los Angeles fell 3 percent. The Port of Oakland experienced a 1-percent decline in throughput last month, and the Port of Long Beach was up 2.1 percent, but growth in empty container volumes masked declines at all three ports in loaded boxes.