The Port of Oakland, boosted by 10 months of double-digit increases in total container traffic during 2010, ended the year up nearly 14 percent over 2009, eliminating the volume loses experienced since the global economic recession and coming close to breaking the all-time annual container record for the port set in 2006.
The port handled a total of 2,330,202 TEUs in 2010, a 13.9 percent increase over 2009. The 2010 numbers surpassed the port's end-of-the-year numbers for both 2008 and 2009, falling just 50,000 and 60,000 TEUs short of the year-end numbers in 2007 and 2006, respectively. The port record for total containers moved in a year was 2.39 million TEUs set in 2006.
The 2010 year-end numbers also make Oakland the third busiest US container port on the West Coast, coming in behind number one Los Angeles, number two Long Beach, and just ahead of number four Seattle.
During 2010, Oakland handled 802,917 loaded inbound TEUs, a 14.5 percent increase over 2009 numbers. The port also handled 802,917 loaded outbound TEUs, a 1.3 drop over the previous year.
Despite the positive calendar year numbers, the port actually turned in a sour final month for the year. In December 2010, the port handled a total of 187,953 TEUs, a gain of just 0.6 percent compared to December 2009. In addition, both import and export box numbers fell during December: total loaded inbound boxes fell 2.5 percent to 65,789 TEUs for the month; and, total loaded outbound box numbers dropped 6.6 percent to 83,069 TEUs.
