Port of Seattle boxes volume down 1.8 percent

Container traffic at the Port of Seattle in November fell 1.8 percent year-over-year, as a 6.1 percent decrease in exports offset a 2 percent rise in imports, the Journal of Commerce reported.

Loaded imports declined 5.9 percent and loaded exports rose 1.8 percent in the same period, according to port statistics. Container traffic at the Washington port is down 7.3 percent year-over-year in the first 11 months of 2011, largely because loaded container import traffic fell 15 percent in the same period.

In contract, container traffic at Washington’s second-largest port, Tacoma, was up 3.2 percent year-over-year in the first 11 months of 2011.