For the first time in more than two years the Puget Sound ports of Seattle and Tacoma have both shown a monthly gain in total container volumes, though Tacoma continued to report sizable declines in loaded export containers.
While the Seattle port has reported sizable double digit monthly increases every month since last year, total monthly box volumes at the Port of Tacoma have remained in the negative since 2008.
In August, Seattle reported a nearly 40 percent monthly gain in total volume over the same period last year and Tacoma finally inched into the positive column with a nearly 2 percent gain in total box volume.
Seattle officials reported handling a total of 212,481 TEUs in August, a 38.9 percent increase over last August. For the month, Seattle handled 88,618 loaded inbound TEUs, a 42.4 percent increase over the year-ago period. The port also handled 46,794 loaded outbound containers in August, a 4.4 percent increase over August 2009.
The Port of Tacoma reported handling a total of 124,210 TEUs in August, a 1.9 percent increase over the same period last year. Tacoma official reported handling a total of 40,065 international loaded inbound TEUs in August, an increase of 23.9 percent over August 2009. These gains in imports were almost absorbed by a 25.4 percent decline in the total loaded outbound containers for August. The port moved 22,774 loaded outbound containers in August compared to the August last year.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
