The total number of TEUs
moving through the Port of Tacoma improved 1.3 percent during the first half of
2012 compared with the same six months last year, with the slight increase driven
largely by rising imports, according to newly-released data.
The number of inbound full
containers was up by 13.4 percent during the six-month period, according to port
data, rising from 217,512 TEUs to 246,750.
Full outbound container
traffic also saw an increase, rising by two percent during the six-month period
from 185,311 TEUs to 188,972. Cumulatively, the number of full containers moved
during the first half of the year amounted to 435,722, an 8.2 percent rise from
the 402,823 Tacoma saw during the same period in 2011.
The increases helped counter
a decline in the number of empty containers that were shipped through the port the
first half of the year. The number of empties imported and exported overseas was
69,174 during the six-month period that concluded at the end of June, a 17 percent
drop from the 83,355 that moved through Tacoma during the first half of 2011.
In June, 87,610 full TEUs
were shipped overseas through the port, a sizable increase from the 73,162 that
moved through Tacoma in June 2011. The rise was a major factor in the port’s total
container volume for the month increasing 9.9 percent to 143,830 TEUs from June
2011’s 130,838.
