US East Coast Ports Box Volumes Slump

SOUTH Carolina ports and Georgia Ports Authority both reported declines in May container volumes compared with a year ago.

News ID: 65893

Date: 19 June 2016 - 09:51

According to MANA, South Carolina Ports Authority said its ports handled 177,865 teu in May, down 2.2% from a year ago. Container volume imports were down 2.7% last month compared with a year earlier to 80,916 teu and containerised exports dropped 1.7% to 96,950 teu.

For the first five months of 2016, ports' total container volumes decreased by 2.1% to 809,618 teu.

Georgia Ports Authority posted even worse levels for last month.

Total cargo volumes came in at 313,485 teu for May, down 7% from May 2015. The imports total slumped 9% year on year to 151,759 teu, while the exports total dropped 5% to 161,726 teu. Year to date, container volume was down 5.4% compared with the first five months of 2015.

In Georgia, Port of Savannah was the second fastest-growing US port in 2015 with an 11.7% growth rate. Port of Charleston in South Carolina had a container volumes growth rate of 13.7% in 2015.

The South Carolina Ports Authority recently adopted a financial plan for the 2017 fiscal year, the highest capital plan in the SCPA’s history, according to the port authority.

The plan projects a 6% increase in pier box volume to 1.175m units during fiscal year 2017. SCPA’s fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30 in the following year.