Container volumes continue to increase strongly at North American East Coast ports

Port of New York (Photo: Port of New York)

While volumes at North American West Coast ports began to decline sharply during the third quarter of 2022 (on a full-year basis and on a year-over-year basis compared to 2019), the same did not happen for other ports. port on the East Coast of North America.

As shown in Figure 1, import growth in Q3/2022 is between 4%-11% and annual growth is between 7%-10%. Total processing output also shows a similar growth trend, albeit with a slight downward shift. There was also an increase in export cargo volume, which grew for the fourth consecutive month through September year-on-year, which suggests that carriers are starting to clear large export backlogs slightly. Empty container exports are still growing at a rate of 17%-20% over the same period in 2019.

Imported container growth in North American East Coast ports (Source: Sea-Intelligence)

There is also another important takeaway from the Sea-Intelligence analysis, which is that there is a continuous volume change from West Coast ports to East Coast ports, causing processing volumes on both coasts more closely equal. Whereas during the past decade, North American West Coast ports have handled much larger volumes than East Coast ports. This is shown in figure 2, where a number greater than 1 means more cargo volume is handled in West Coast ports and vice versa.

Percentage of imports between the West Coast and East Coast of North America (Source: Sea-Intelligence)

Source: Phaata.com (According to Sea-Intelligence)

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