Container volume through US west coast ports of Tacoma, Los Angeles and Long Beach either dropped or remained flat in 2007 on the back of a shrinking US economy, weak housing market and higher overland transport costs.
After five years of growth, Tacoma suffered a seven per cent decline in container throughput, with the total volume in 2007 amounting to 1.9 million TEU versus 2.1 million TEU in 2006.
Intermodal lifts dropped by 19 per cent to 481,102, in spite of total cargo volumes growing by three per cent year on year to 19.6 million tons, reports Progressive Railroading.com, citing figures from port officials.
Looking ahead, Tacoma is forecasting six per cent growth in container volumes for this year to handle a total of 2.05 million TEU, with intermodal lifts forecast to rise by nine per cent to 525,350 and total tonnage expected to grow by three per cent over 2007's disappointing results to 20.1 million tons.
At Los Angeles, the port posted a 1.4 per cent decline in container throughput to handle a total of 8.4 million TEU in 2007. But laden containers were up 3.2 per cent compared over 2006.
The report said that the number of full export containers grew 13 per cent, while empties fell by 11.4 per cent year on year.
For 2007, nearby Long Beach saw container volume at 7.3 million TEU, the same as 2006. Export containers went up 22 per cent, hitting a record 1.5 million TEU, while imported box volume dropped 0.4 per cent year on year to 3.7 million TEU, the report added.
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