Thursday, August 20, 2015

Puget Sound Monthly Container Volumes Grow

By Mark Edward Nero

Container volumes through the ports of Seattle and Tacoma collectively known as the Northwest Seaport Alliance are continuing to post year-over-year gains. Container volumes at the ports grew nearly eight percent last month compared to July 2014.

The ports collectively moved 296,349 TEUs in July, a 7.9 percent increase from the 274,593 containers moved in July 2014.

Through the first seven months of the year, the NWSA has handled about 2.08 million TEUs, a four percent year-to-date increase over last years 2.0 million.

Strong volumes of full import containers powered a three percent year-to-date gain in containerized imports to 823,695 TEUs between January and July. Export containers grew nearly six percent during the same seven months to 733,150 TEUs, propelled by a high volume of empty containers being sent back to Asia.

The news isnt all good, however: full export containers struggled in July, falling nearly 14 percent on the year, something that the ports says is the result of a stronger US dollar and softening economies in Japan and China.

Drought and extreme heat in the Pacific Northwest have also challenged Washington states agricultural output.

In other year-to-date cargo news: auto imports jumped nearly eight percent to 109,950 units at the ports, while breakbulk volumes were down less than one percent to 162,090 metric tons.
Grain exports were down almost 12 percent to 3,690,251 metric tons.

More information about the ports current and historical cargo volumes is available at https://www.nwseaportalliance.com/sites/default/files/July2015_ContainerVolumes.pdf