Zepol: Seattle, Long Beach lead import gains in ?10

Zepol: Seattle, Long Beach lead import gains in Æ10    The Port of Seattle has leapfrogged Oakland and Norfolk to join the top five U.S. ports in terms of containerized imports, according to a to-be-released report on the country's top 50 container ports by trade intelligence company Zepol Corp.
   (A chart of the top 20 U.S. ports for imports is available here.)
   The top four ports — Los Angeles, Long Beach, New York-New Jersey, and Savannah — remained in the same order as at the end of 2009, though Long Beach gained ground on Los Angeles by bettering its neighbor in growth rate (22.5 percent to 13 percent, respectively).
   Together, Long Beach and Los Angeles handled 7.2 million TEUs of import containers, a 16 percent increase over the import volume they jointly handled in 2009.
   Seattle's climb to the top five was highlighted by a near 47 percent increase in import volume, to 949,773 TEUs. That growth rate was tops among any of the top 32 ports on the list and was only bested by ports that handle around 10,000 TEUs or less annually.
   While Seattle zoomed past Oakland and Norfolk, both also saw strong volume gains in 2010, as did eighth place Houston and ninth place Charleston. Tacoma finished 10th, but saw its gap over No. 11 Miami narrow significantly last year. Among the top 20 ports, No. 13 Baltimore had the third-highest growth rate (after Seattle and Long Beach), luring 21.4 percent more import containers than in 2009.
   Minneapolis-based Zepol tracks inbound containers using U.S. Customs data straight from carrier bills of lading. The full 2010 Port Report, due out in mid-February, will include more detailed information about the top 50 ports, including top carriers, port partners, and consignees.
   More information is available at Zepol's Web site. ' Eric Johnson