EAST COAST PORTS: U.S East Coast ports took eight spots on a list of top 10 fastest-growing major U.S. ports in the first half of 2015, edging out all but two of their West Coast counterparts.
It’s a testament not only to the booming U.S. import market and the investments Atlantic ports have made to edge out competition for that traffic, but also the staying power of West Coast diversions months after the labor crisis there came to a close.
Of the top 10 fastest-growing ports for the first six months of 2015, Savannah took the No. 1 spot. Containerized imports there were up 33 percent year-over-year, at 814,384 20-foot-equivalent units, according to data from according to PIERS, a sister product of JOC.com within IHS Maritime & Trade. Savannah was followed by Seattle and Miami, both at 21 percent.
Port officials have attributed the Georgia port’s growth to a number of factors. The typically congestion-free Savannah port within a two-day drive of 44 percent of the U.S. population seemed particularly well-poised to attract shippers stung by the West Coast labor dispute earlier in the year.
East Coast ports like Savannah, including Virginia, New York-New Jersey and Charleston also benefitted from a general increase in U.S. import traffic as the American economy recovered — however slowly — and the strengthening dollar made importing goods more attractive to consumers.
In the first half of 2015, U.S. imports broke the 10 million-TEU mark for the first time since at least 2005. Imports hit 10.2 million TEUs in the first six months of 2015, up 5 percent from 2014’s 9,700,200 TEUs.
In the first half of 2015, East Coast ports grew their share of U.S. container imports by 3 percentage points to a 43 percent stake, according to PIERS. West Coast ports, in the same six months, saw their share slip 5 percentage points to a 50 percent stake.
To keep up with added demand, but also to compete for even more traffic East Coast ports in the first half of the year began a slew of projects investing in port infrastructure.
In Savannah’s case, Georgia Ports Authority Director Curtis Foltz said the port took on several initiatives: increasing capacity by building a new truck gate, moving empty containers off the main terminal, purchasing 30 rubber-tired gantry cranes and increasing hours and overtime for workers.
Miami, however, presents a unique case. The port saw containerized imports grow 21 percent in the first half of 2015, moving 197,425 TEUs in those six months.
Ports in Virginia, Charleston and New York-New Jersey have each attributed their ability to capture and keep new business at least partially to considerable investments in port infrastructure and technology. With price tags in the millions of dollars, every port is betting big. Miami, however, stands alone in some respects as the port taking the biggest gamble.
More than $1 billion of capital infrastructure projects are already in place in Miami including new super post-Panamax gantry cranes; new on-dock intermodal rail service, part of a partnership with Florida East Coast Railway linking PortMiami to 70 percent of the U.S. population in four days or less; as well as a new tunnel connecting the port directly to the U.S. interstate highway system.
The port is also counting down the days until its $205 million dredging project is expected to be completed later this month.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott even led a “trade delegation” to California to make the case to major shippers that Florida ports can give them access to inland markets without the congestion and uncertainty that has blighted West Coast ports, and even some East Coast ports, for months.
In the midst of these efforts, Miami has secured double-digit cargo growth on at least two occasions over the course of the past six months. Despite these efforts though, Miami still has a long way to go if it hopes to compete with the likes of Savannah, Charleston and Norfolk. When it comes to Asian imports, the fastest-growing segment of container trade, the Florida port remains outmatched by its Southeast rivals. Miami handled just just 6.5 percent of U.S. imports from Asia to the region in 2014.
Seattle, too, is an exceptional case. The Washington state port may have ranked second among the top 10 fastest-growing ports, but, at 253,112 TEUs, its total number of containerized imports ranked well below even ports who saw traffic slow during the first six months of the year.
2010 marked the highest import year for Seattle, with TEU volume reaching just over 888,000 TEUs. But in 2012, Seattle lost three major carriers accounting for roughly 20 percent of the port’s container traffic — Hapag Lloyd, NYK Line and OOCL — to nearby Tacoma. By 2014, Seattle’s volumes were in a steep decline, dropping 52 percent in four years before hitting a low at just 425,400 TEUs.
Seattle’s rank is due in large part to a surge in regained carrier share. Since volumes first started to drop off in 2010, the port has added two new cargo lines as customers, Mediterranean Shipping Co. and CMA CGM, and managed to retain Hanjin during lease renegotiations.
All three lines have seen significant uptick in traffic. Today, Hanjin is back its pre-2013 levels. The container lines imported roughly 31,000 TEUs in the first half of 2015, more than double its volumes in the first half of 2014. CMA CGM has also had a significant increase in import traffic, up 42 percent year-over-year. MSC, too, contributed to the bounce back with a 39 percent increase year-over-year.