The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced that the Port of New York and New Jersey moved the most cargo in the US in February 2023 and year-to-date in 2023.
In February, traditionally the slowest time of the year for all U.S. ports due to overseas production slowdowns and closures related to the Lunar New Year holiday, the port remained busy by moving 571,177 TEUs, the highest amount of cargo among peer ports, exceeding the Port of Los Angeles by more than 83,000 TEUs and exceeding the Port of Long Beach by more than 27,000 TEUs. The container port’s status as the busiest in the United States comes after the seaport was the second-busiest in the month of January, when the port moved 645,430 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units).
For the first two months of 2023, the port also was the busiest in the US after moving a total of 1,216,607 TEUs. In particular, the port has been aggressively clearing out its empty container inventory with the removal of more than 390,000 TEUs so far this year. This evacuation of empty containers helps improve seaport operations and fluidity by ensuring more container terminal space for imports to be processed quickly at the port in the future.
The Port of New York and New Jersey was previously the busiest container port in the US for four months from August through November 2022. In 2022, the port handled a total of nearly 9.5 million TEUs, its highest annual amount of cargo in its history.