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Trade News & Trends: Global Port Tracker, St. Lawrence Seaway, South Louisiana

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Import volume at the largest U.S. containerized retail cargo handling container ports is expected to grow 1.7 percent in August from a year ago, reversing the negative trend of the past five months, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released August 13 by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates. New cargoes provide grounds for optimism for the St. Lawrence Seaway, with several ports – including the Port of Monroe, Port of Cleveland, Port of Milwaukee, Port of Duluth-Superior and Port of Quebec – handling heavy lifts for Great Lakes region projects. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Foreign Trade Zones Board has approved an application by the Port of South Louisiana (PSL) for the expansion of Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) 124.  

Global Port Tracker: Merchandise Imports to Show First Increase Since May

Import volume at the largest U.S. containerized retail cargo handling container ports is expected to grow 1.7 percent in August from a year ago, reversing the negative trend of the past five months, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released August 13 by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates. Furthermore, says Port Tracker, the positive numbers should continue through the remainder of 2013, with the year-end total expected to exceed 2012’s by 2.5 percent.

Global Port Tracker’s conclusions are based on a survey and analysis of inbound container traffic flows at the ports of Charleston, Hampton Roads, Houston, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Oakland, Port Everglades, Savannah, Seattle and Tacoma.

"As the economy continues to slowly improve, retailers are stocking up for their most important sales season of the year," said Jonathan Gold, the NRF’s vice president for supply chain and customs policy. "Merchants have been very cautious so far this year, but our forecasts show that they plan to make up for it in the next few months."

The U.S. ports followed by Global Port Tracker experienced year-over-year declines in cargo in every month since March except May. June throughput totaled 1.36 million TEUs, down 2.7 percent from the preceding month and 1.8 percent less than in June 2012. July’s estimated 1.4 million TEUs would be down 0.6 percent from a year ago. 

Subseqent month forecasts: August – 1.45 million TEUs (+1.7 percent); September – 1.43 million TEUs (+1.9 percent); October – 1.45 million TEUs (+8.3 percent); November – 1.37 million TEUs (+6.7 percent); and December – 1.34 million TEUs (+up 3.5 percent).

"Trade at the ports continues to remain positive, confirming our view that the economy remains on a slow but steady course of recovery," said Hackett Associates founder Ben Hackett. "The question is whether importers are building up stock ahead of expected sales demand or in response to recently announced freight rate increases."

St. Lawrence Seaway: Heavy Lift Cargoes Buoy Prospects 

New cargoes provide grounds for optimism for the St. Lawrence Seaway, with several U.S. ports handling heavy lifts for Great Lakes region projects.

Twice during July, McKeil Marine Ltd. called at the Port of Monroe to deliver heavy-lift industrial components. "These project pieces," said Monroe Port Director Paul LaMarre, "were manufactured by Cherubini Metal Workers Ltd. in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and will be installed in the last of four Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) Units at DTE Energy’s Monroe Power Plant. These shipments represent the first Seaway cargo to come to the Port of Monroe in quite some time – an event we look forward to repeating."

At the Port of Cleveland, international cargo volume jumped 77 percent in July compared to 2012 and was up nearly 4 percent year-to-date. "We continue to see strong demand for steel from manufacturers in our region," said David Gutheil, the port’s vice president of maritime and logistics. "We also handled two new types of cargo that both originated in Germany – steel beams destined for western Pennsylvania and manufacturing presses that were sent to Wooster, Ohio."

In Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, a $100 million grid upgrade moved a step closer to completion after an ocean-going vessel transported three transformers to the site. Manufactured in Sweden, the sophisticated electrical equipment moved via the Seaway system to the Port of Milwaukee and then by barge to its final destination, St. Ignace. 

The Port of Duluth-Superior welcomed Whitefish Bay, the second of CSL’s four Trillium Class vessels, to the Midwest Energy Resources Co. (MERC) coal terminal. There, it loaded 32,500 short tons of low-sulfur Western sub-bituminous coal bound for Rotterdam following transshipment through the Port of Québec. Similarly, another Trillium-class ship, the Thunder Bay, loaded iron ore pellets for transshipment via Québec to overseas markets.

Overall, the Seaway handled 15.3 million metric tons of cargo from its March 22 season opening date through July 31, down 15 percent from a year ago. U.S. grain, the waterway’s predominant cargo, jumped 35 percent. Other gainers included scrap metal (+40 percent), pig iron (+7 percent), and liquid bulks (+1.5 percent). Coal and iron ore fell by 16 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively, due to lower steel production in the region.

South Louisiana: Foreign Trade Zone 124 Expands Service Area to Tangipahoa Parish

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Foreign Trade Zones Board has approved an application by the Port of South Louisiana (PSL) for the expansion of Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) 124. The port is the zone grantee.

The federal decision authorizes FTZ 124 to create a zone anywhere in Tangipahoa Parish, including Port Manchac, under the Alternative Site Framework (ASF) option. The ASF gives greater flexibility to FTZs by using simpler and less time-consuming procedures to bring FTZ designation to locations where a company has decided to pursue a FTZ.  

Current FTZ 124 occupants include Valero Refinery, Marathon Oil, Motiva, Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, Bollinger Shipyards, North American Shipbuilders, Candies Shipbuilding, J. Ray McDermott, M-I, LLC, Baker Hughes, Excalibar Minerals and Halliburton Energy Services.

"We were very excited when Tangipahoa Parish contacted us to assist them in becoming part of FTZ 124," says PSL Foreign Trade Zone Manager Lisa Braud. "They are one of the fastest growing parishes in Louisiana, and this will only enhance their marketability."  
 

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