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West Coast ports
across North America collectively handled
909,000 TEU in February, the latest month
with available data. This represents an
increase of 33.6 per cent year on year,
and a contraction of 4.1 per cent month
to month.
It is hard to judge February¡¦s
performance on either a year-on-year or
month-to-month basis given that February
almost always sees volumes contract from
the previous month based on the fact there
are two to three days less than January.
The
massive increase in import traffic for the
month is equally misleading as we must factor
in the impact of the Chinese New Year holiday
and the subsequent factory shutdowns, which
occurred in mid-February this year, as opposed
to late January in 2012.
As west
coast ports in North America overwhelmingly
handle imports from Asia, the timing of
the Chinese New Year can greatly alter the
throughput figures of these ports.
In
the immediate aftermath of the Chinese New
Year there is usually a lull in activity
on the trade between Asia and the US west
coast. Conversely in the weeks leading up
to the holiday period there is often a rush
on shipments as shippers in North America
try to get their last minute orders in before
the major factory shutdowns in China occur.
What
we can look to for an indication of how
things really are, however, is the projected
growth for the coming months and year ahead.
According
to the report west coast ports in North
America handled 0.2 per cent more traffic
in March 2013 than a year earlier, and 5.5
per cent less than in February.
This
is more indicative of the post-Chinese New
Year lull than any serious drop-off in volumes.
Looking
ahead to the full year Hackett Associates
and the National Retail Federation expect
west coast ports to post growth of 3.7 per
cent for a total of 11.36 million TEU.
East
coast ports (excluding the ports of New
York and New Jersey, which had not reported
their volumes at the time of publication)
handled a total of 515,000 TEU in import
traffic for February, representing an increase
of 1.2 per cent year on year and a downfall
of 0.3 per cent month to month.
Here
we see a less dramatic drop-off on a month-to-month
basis, and a year-on-year basis, as the
east coast ports handle Asian as well as
European and other cargoes. Therefore the
impact of the Chinese New Year is less.
For
March the Global Port Tracker estimates
that imports to east coast ports increased
4.4 per cent year on year and eight per
cent month to month¡Xall in all, a healthy
result.
For the full year east coast
ports are expected to post growth of 2.7
per cent for a total of 6.72 million TEU.
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