NORTH America's leading ports suffered volume declines between March and August, dashing hopes that this year would record similar growth to 2014 and 2015 with their 4.5 to five per cent year-on-year gains.
North American seaports are unlikely to experience a record cargo year NORTH America's leading ports suffered volume declines between March and August, dashing hopes that this year would record similar growth to 2014 and 2015 with their 4.5 to five per cent year-on-year gains. TEU growth remained negative through August, but managed to post small gains driven by top 10 North American laden exports, and to a lesser extent laden imports, reported New York's financial news portal Seeking Alpha. August marked the beginning of the peak season, but it still remains to be seen whether there will be much further improvement throughout the remainder of the year. Some of the most high-growth seaports during 2015 including New York/New Jersey, Savannah, Charleston and Houston saw negative box growth during the first eight months of 2016. Big west coast ports including LA-Long Beach, Seattle-Tacoma and Oakland have performed much stronger collectively. Still, east and Gulf coast seaports have defended their diverted gains from last year, as declines have been mostly moderate. The most notable positive performers continue to include the ports of Los Angeles, Virginia, Oakland, Lazaro Cardenas, Miami, Veracruz, Baltimore, Altamira, Halifax and Boston.