Port Metrics: U.S. Ports 2015, Virginia

U.S. Waterborne Foreign and Domestic Trade Fell in 2015

America’s waterborne commerce fell in 2015, down 2.9 percent to 2.28 billion short tons from the prior year’s 2.35 billion short tons, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Waterborne Commerce Statistics Center. That includes foreign (i.e., import/export) trade as well as cargo shipped domestically between and within coastal, Great Lakes, non-contiguous and inland waterway ports of the United States.

Tonnage declines afflicted both exports (-3.9 percent) and imports (-1.2 percent) as well as most categories of domestic trade, including the Great Lakes (-4.6 percent) and inland waterways (-5.6 percent). The coastal trade, by contrast, grew for the second consecutive year, with an increase from 2014 of 1.9 percent.

As shown in the attachment, the trend long term remained positive for foreign trade thanks to the export sector and marginal for the domestic trades.

Based on total tonnage, the top U.S. ports in 2015 were South Louisiana, Houston, New York/New Jersey, New Orleans and Beaumont. South Louisiana also ranked first in domestic cargo, while Houston led the nation in foreign trade. Duluth/Superior was the tonnage leader among U.S. Great Lakes ports. Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky was the top inland waterway port.

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Virginia: November Cargo Volumes Strong as Peak Season Nears Close

The Port of Virginia® reports container volumes at its Hampton Roads terminals totaled 236,155 TEUs in November, an increase from last year of 16 percent. That gave the port its second busiest month ever and its tenth consecutive month with a TEU count in excess of 210,000.

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"November was a strong month and we experienced solid growth in import and export volumes, which were up 17 percent and 15 percent (respectively); our peak-season volumes will begin tapering off in December, which is normal," said John F. Reinhart, CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority. "We were in positive territory in many categories, but one exception is vessel calls and this is in keeping with the era of fewer calls, but larger vessels and corresponding cargo volumes."

Looking forward, Mr. Reinhart said the focus "will be maintaining momentum" as the port gets underway with the expansion of Virginia International Gateway later this month and late next spring at Norfolk International Terminals. Combined, these expansion projects will boost annual throughput capacity by 40 percent.

He also expects the recent expansion of Foreign Trade Zone 20 into seven counties and one city in northeast North Carolina "will be of long-term benefit to The Port of Virginia." The port authority is the FTZ grantee.