The U.S. West Coast’s five major ports posted an 87.4% spike in imports in March when compared to the same time a year ago, according to data recently released by the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association.
Combined, ports in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma moved more than 1.135 million in imported TEUs last month, which is more than the 605,895 TEUs in March 2020 and 735,947 TEUs in March 2019.
Meanwhile, exports at West Coast ports have been trending downward, handling a combined 426,932 TEUs. That’s 0.7% less than the 429,765 TEUs posted in March of last year and 8.7% less than two years ago with 465,418 TEUs.
Because the COVID-19 pandemic has affected cargo numbers, PMSA is also comparing the pre-pandemic numbers of 2019.
“The Big Five did handle 94.9% of the containerized tonnage imported and 95.8% of the containerized tonnage exported through all USWC ports in this year’s first quarter,” the PMSA report states in part.
Tuesday, June 1, 2021
