Milestones & Records: Saint John, Tacoma, Virginia

Port Saint John experienced a doubling of container cargo tonnage during first half 2013. Tacoma welcomed its largest container ship ever on July 10. The Virginia Port Authority reports container box traffic at its terminals reached a record high in in FY 2013.

Saint John Container Tonnage Doubles 2012 Numbers at Mid-Year Point

Mid-way through 2013, container cargo at Port Saint John had doubled in volume, to 258,055 metric tons from 129,125 a year ago. Container box throughput surged to 38,762 TEUs from 22,575, an increase of 72 percent. 

"We are obviously very pleased with these results. The fact that New Brunswick and regional container shippers and receivers can access the world through Port Saint John is a great catalyst for further economic growth. We look forward to strong performance for the remainder of this year as well," said Andrew Dixon, the port authority’s vice-president of planning and development. 

Tacoma: ZIM Djibouti, largest ship ever to call the port, arrives at Washington United Terminals

ZIM Djibouti, the largest container ship ever to call in Tacoma, arrived July 10 at Washington United Terminals. With a capacity of 10,000 20-foot equivalent container units (TEUs), the ZIM Djibouti is 1,145 feet long and 150 feet wide, more than twice the diameter of the Tacoma Dome and almost twice the height of the Space Needle. It can carry about 40 percent more cargo than most of the container ships that call at the Port of Tacoma.

ZIM Integrated Shipping began calling Tacoma last July, when the Grand Alliance, a consortium of three of the world’s largest shipping lines that includes Hapag-Lloyd (Germany), Orient Overseas Container Line (Hong Kong) and NYK Line (Japan), relocated to Washington United Terminals, a 110-acre container facility on the Blair Waterway. 

"Ships continue to get larger, and we are ready for them," said John Wolfe, Port of Tacoma chief executive officer. "We are fortunate to have naturally deep water, and we are investing in our terminals and road and rail infrastructure to handle more cargo and the associated super-post-Panamax ships and cranes."

Virginia Container Traffic Sets Fiscal Year Record 

The Virginia Port Authority reports container throughput at its Hampton Roads terminals jumped 10 percent to a record 2.165 million TEUs during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2013.

First half CY 2013 was also a record-breaker for the Virginia port, with throughput of 1.054 million TEUs and an increase from a year ago of 6.0 percent. 

In June alone, the port handled 175,864 TEUs, a 4.4 percent increase from last year that gave Virginia its best June volume ever. In this June’s tally, exports accounted for 93,020 TEUs (+3.8 percent) and imports for 89,635 TEUs (+5.1 percent).

"There are a number of factors that we can attribute this success to: ocean carriers loading their vessels heavy to take advantage of our 50-foot deep channels, an increasing number of first-in and last-out vessel calls, our expanding rail service, our push into new markets like Greensboro, N.C., and an improving economy," said Rodney W. Oliver, PPM®, the port authority’s interim executive director. 

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