Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Port of Metro Vancouver Monthly Container Volumes Rise


Canadian Port of Metro Vancouver’s monthly container volumes were strong in August 2012, with the facility’s terminals moving a total of 242,821 20-foot equivalent units last month, up from 215,765 TEUs in August 2011.

The port has had a good year so far when it comes to both full and empty container movement and that streak continued last month, as Canada’s largest port saw more than 208,200 full TEUs in August, about 123,000 of which were inbound and almost 85,000 outbound. By comparison, about 188,820 full TEUs traveled through the port during the same month last year, including 116,700 inbound containers and 72,120 outbound.

Regarding empty TEUs, Metro Vancouver saw 34,600 last month, more than 26,400 of which were outbound and 8,100 inbound. Last August, the port saw just more than 26,940 empty containers, 22,000 of which were exports and almost 4,900 of which were imported.

Additionally, container volumes through the first eight months of the year were more than eight percent higher than the same time period last year at Metro Vancouver. Port terminals moved 1.78 million TEUs from January through August 2012, a jump of 135,573 TEUs, or 8.2 percent, from the same time period in 2011. The number of imports and exports both rose by healthy amounts during the stretch.

Just more than 976,250 TEUs were imported through the port last month, a jump of about 104,570 containers, or 12 percent, from the 871,680 that were brought in during August 2011.

Also, port terminals exported about 813,430 TEUs in August 2012, an increase of about 31,000, or 4.0 percent, from the 782,430 that were shipped out during the same month last year.

According to American Association of Port Authorities rankings, Port Metro Vancouver is the largest port by container traffic in Canada and fourth largest in North America, after the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and New York/New Jersey.