Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Seattle Year-Over-Year TEU Volumes Still Down

The shift of the Grand Alliance of shippers to Tacoma from the Port of Seattle is still being felt at Seattle, as the port’s year-over-year container volumes were down 26 percent for May 2013 vs. 2012 and down 22.5 percent year-to-date.

However, with the Grand Alliance volume shift factored out, Seattle’s full outbound volumes are up 4.3 percent YTD, according to port data.

In May, Port of Seattle terminals saw a total of 129,022 TEUs, down from over 174,000 TEUs in May 2012. Of the 129,000, full inbound containers made up the largest portion -- 44,770 TEUs – followed by full outbound, at 37,378 TEUs.

For the calendar year to date, Seattle has shipped 647,411 TEUs, a drop of over 187,700 containers from the same five months last year.

As a region, the ports of Seattle and Tacoma are down 8.5 percent for May 2013 vs. 2012 and down 0.6 percent YTD, according to Port of Seattle data.

The Grand Alliance began three new calls each week at the Port of Tacoma’s Washington United Terminals in July 2012 and since the shift, Tacoma has seen year-over-year container volume increases while Seattle has experienced the opposite.

The shift is expected to impact Port of Seattle year-over-year container volume comparisons until mid-year.