The U.S.-based ports, including Los Angeles/Long Beach, Oakland, Tacoma, Seattle, New York/New Jersey, Hampton Roads, Charleston, and Savannah—handled a cumulative 1.43 million Twenty-foot equivalents (TEUs) of container traffic in October, the most recent month for which data is available. October’s total eclipsed September by 1.4 percent, and it marked a 4.5 percent increase over October 2005. Although October represented the highest monthly total for the year, it was short of its projected total of 1.5 million TEUs, which was predicted in last month’s Port Tracker report.Global Insight economist Paul Bingham told Logistics Management that October’s high volume indicates that the container transportation network operated at an acceptable level despite this year’s record level of port traffic. He added that this is largely due to the continued diligence of everyone involved in supply chains from overseas.
“The improvements in operations and physical capacity additions provided enough new throughput capacity for the peak volume,” said Bingham. “Looking ahead to 2007, shippers should begin preparing now for next year’s yet-higher levels of traffic.”Now that peak season is over, traffic at major United States retail container ports is hitting its wintertime “slowdown” period, although port traffic volume is expected to remain ahead of this year’s pace, according to the report.“The overall trade volumes handled for the year in 2007 will actually continue to increase, because the economy and trade will continue to see growth, even as trade growth will decelerate,” said Bingham. “As monthly volume declines right now through the slow season, there is still underlying growth in trade from the still-expanding economy, meaning that even during the slow time of the year, there is going to be growth compared with the same months one year ago.”With the next six months expected to be congestion-free, Bingham pointed to a number of things that need to happen. Chief among them are additional investment by ocean carriers into capacity and continued improvements to operating practices.“We know that substantial additional container ship fleet capacity is already on order, but the same cannot be said for the land-side system where additional capacity will be needed to handle future volumes,” said Bingham.
“This year's performance does not assure future peak season performance, so individual shippers must continue to maintain diligence in monitoring the performance and capabilities of their suppliers to handle their traffic.”While peak volumes for 2006 have been reached, this month’s report suggests that port traffic volumes will continue to show increases ahead of last year’s pace. The November report predicts that November’s volume will come in at 1.33 million TEUs—a 4.6 percent increase from November 2005. December, January, February, and March are forecasted at 1.29 million TEUs, 1.24 million TEUs, 1.17 million TEUs, and 1.27 million TEUs respectively.