US box ports lose market share to rivals
US PORTS continued to lose market share to competitors in Mexico and Canada last year as shippers and forwarders sought alternative, less-disrupted North American gateways.
According to MANA, While total North American container traffic grew by a modest 1.6% to 40.6m teu in 2015, Mexican ports handled 5.1% more inbound and outbound containers while Canadian ports saw growth of 4.1%. In contrast, US ports handled just 0.8% more containers last year.US ports still had a market share of 78.5% last year, handling 31.9m teu, but that compares with 79.1% in 2014. In contrast, the market share of Canadian ports rose from 11.7% to 12% or 4.9m teu, while Mexican ports saw their share of the total increase from 9.2% to 9.5% or 3.8m teu.
The port which experienced the fastest growth last year was Mexico’s Altamira, with volumes up 16% to 519,011 teu, while Canada’s Prince Rupert saw growth of 14.3% to 589,523 teu.
US west coast ports all suffered in 2015 from weeks of disruption, which often left ships anchored outside the harbour waiting for a berth to come clear.