Imports to the US West Coast increased as East Coast and Gulf ports affected

Port of Los Angeles (Photo: Fox 11)

 
U.S. West Coast ports saw import volumes increase significantly compared to East and Gulf Coast ports, which saw a 12.7% month-over-month increase, while East Coast ports saw a 5.1% decrease. .

West Coast imports saw an increase through the Port of Long Beach with a 23.6% increase while imports at the Port of Savannah decreased 16.5%.

Shipping expert John McCown wrote in his October report, published this week: “We are now back into a period without this pandemic-related noise where the overall year-over-year change is a pulse related to the economy of tangible things.”

According to McCown, November figures will show a significant increase in volumes, based on data from Container Trades Statistics (CTS) which revealed that September data on exports in the Far East will translate into import volumes of around 14.2% in the US next month.

Total import volumes in October showed an increase of 8.8% compared to the same period in 2019, before statistics were affected by the pandemic, which means a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was 2.1%, much higher than the CAGR of 0.3% in August and similar to September.

The shift back to the West Coast has slowed, but still shows a 17.8% gap in favor of West Coast ports, with volumes up 12.7% compared to a 5.1% decline on the East Coast. This is a much smaller gap than the 30.4% seen in September.

New York remains at the top of the top 10 US import ports with October imports of 374,590 TEU compared to Los Angeles' 372,455 TEU and Long Beach's 363,300 TEU. But the three-month total of 1.062 million TEUs compares with 1.198 million and 1.097 million TEUs for Los Angeles and Long Beach, respectively, and reveals the underlying trajectory of 13.9% decline in New York compared to 10.5% and 7.5% increases on the West Coast over the last three months.

A continuation of this trend will see both West Coast ports surpass New York in November.

Export volumes continue to be dominated by East Coast and Gulf ports with Houston leading with 126,011 TEU in October, Los Angeles second with 121,276 TEU, joining Savannah, New York and Norfolk complete the top five export facilities with Long Beach reduced to 90,073 TEU after a 24.8% decrease in October.

In total, East Coast and Gulf ports exported 501,533 TEUs, compared with 322,683 TEUs from the West Coast. Exports in the three months to October increased 2.1% to 2.43 million TEU, but the CAGR was -3.7%.

“In October those ports [East and Gulf Coast facilities] represented 60.8% of exports but only 53.3% of imports,” McCown said.

CTS's global container freight rate gauge gives an indication of how all freight rates, including spot and contract rates, are compared to 2008, with the figure 15 years ago set at 100 The latest CTS index, at 71, shows global freight rates are 29% lower than in 2008. However, it is higher than the fourth quarter 2019 index of 66.33.

Read more:

• Number of ships waiting to pass through the Panama Canal increasing
• International shipping and logistics market update - Week 46/2023

Source: Phaata.com (According to ConainerNews) 

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