Port Metro Vancouver Monthly Traffic Down

Port Metro Vancouver, Canada’s largest seaport, saw a total of 195,103 TEUs in March 2013, a drop from the 217,162 TEUs that port terminals saw during the same month in 2012, according to newly released data.

Of the containers traveling through the port last month, the vast majority, 177,562, were full, with about 93,100 of them being exported and 84,390 being imports. Empties accounted for 17,542 TEUs during the month, with 9,300 of those being inbound and more than 8,200 being outbound. In March 2012, Metro Vancouver moved almost 200,000 full containers and about 17,100 empties.

The year-over-year decrease in full container traffic can be attributed in part to the Lunar New Year holiday, which affects production in many Asian countries that export to western North America. Compared to 2012, the holiday celebration started later this year and the effects were pushed to March, while last year’s holiday slowed trade in February 2012.

But despite the slow month, Metro Vancouver is still ahead of last year’s pace for container movement. So far in 2013, the port has moved 642,959 TEUs, up from roughly 627,000 TEUs during the same time period in 2012.

The volumes make it the third busiest port on the North American West Coast, behind Los Angeles and Long Beach, which saw totals of 1.78 million and 1.55 million TEUs respectively, during the same first three months of the year.

POLA Sees Major Surge in Exports

The Port of Los Angeles saw a 28 percent increase in loaded outbound cargo containers in October over the same month last year, according to new data. Imports also rose last month, increasing by five percent compared with October 2010.

Broken down, the number of full containers exported was 193,547, an increase of almost 42,500 over October 2010. The number of loaded inbound containers last month was 368,842, an increase of about 19,300, or 5.5 percent, over the same month last year.

The complete number of loaded containers imported and exported during the month was 562,390, a 12.3 percent increase over October 2010. The number of empty containers however, fell to 150,195 last month from 181,790 during the same month last year, a decrease of over 17 percent.

Total container traffic during the month amounted to a 4.4 percent year-over-year rise, to 712,586 TEUs from October 2010’s 682,384.

During the first 10 months of the calendar year, TEU traffic has risen at the Port of LA by just 44,653 containers, or 0.6 percent.

Although the import numbers remain weak, the port’s October exports total was the highest of the calendar year so far. It’s being attributed in part to an increase in demand of a number of products that California is known for growing, manufacturing and exporting, such as agricultural goods, raw metals, electrical equipment and computers.