WASHINGTON: After missing the mark in August, the State Ports Authority climbed back into record territory in September with an 11 percent increase in containerized goods moving across the Port of Charleston’s terminals. The SPA has now set cargo records in eight of the first nine months of this year and set an annual mark for fiscal 2017, when ended June 30. In September, the SPA moved 101,902 containers. That compares with 91,784 a year ago. Cargo measured in standard 20-foot units — called TEUs, the maritime industry’s benchmark for measuring container volume — also set a record for September with 179,856 boxes moved. That’s a 10.4 percent increase over the same month last year. “The port continues to see year-over-year growth and our first-quarter results, including record September container volumes, reflect a very positive start to our 2018 fiscal year,” Jim Newsome, the SPA’s president and CEO, said in a statement.
The agency’s inland port in Greer moved 10,648 cargo containers between trucks and trains in September and its fiscal year-to-date numbers are 16 percent higher than the same period a year ago. While containerized cargo levels were up, other freight saw declines. Breakbulk, or cargo that isn’t shipped in containers, was down 1.3 percent from a year ago while the number of finished vehicles declined by nearly 27 percent. Newsome said a change in models built at the BMW plant Greer is still affecting the number of vehicles the German automaker is exporting to foreign markets. The growth in containerized freight is being driven by large container ships that are now able to pass through the expanded Panama Canal, with some vessels capable of carrying up to 14,000 cargo boxes at a time. The Panama Canal Authority on Tuesday said the waterway saw a record 403.8 million tons of cargo pass through its expanded locks in fiscal 2017, a 22 percent year-over-year increase. Since its expansion was completed in June 2016, the canal has had more than 2,000 visits from so-called neo-Panamax ships that wouldn’t have fit through the older, narrower locks. “These figures reflect not only the industry’s confidence in the expanded canal, but also illustrate the Panama Canal’s continued ability to transform the global economy and revitalize the maritime industry,” Jorge Quijano, the canal’s administrator, said in a statement. Charleston isn’t the only East Coast port to see freight increases in the wake of the Panama Canal’s expansion.
The Port of Virginia said it saw 9 percent more cargo boxes in September than the same month a year ago. “We are seeing continued growth in all of our trade lanes, good peak-season volume and anticipate a solid performance for the remainder of the year,” John Reinhart, executive director of the Virginia Ports Authority, said in a statement. “We have forward momentum in several areas. The Port of Savannah moved the equivalent of more than 1 million 20-foot containers across its Garden City Terminal during the first quarter of fiscal 2018, reflecting 5.8 percent growth. “Sustained organic growth couple with increased market share are driving these volume increases,” Griff Lynch, executive director of the Georgia Ports Authority, said in a statement. “We have also achieved major gains through the addition of neo-Panamax vessels to the fleet serving Garden City Terminal.” The Port of New York and New Jersey, the East Coast’s largest maritime facility, has not released September figures. In August, the port handled 585,327 TEUs — a 7.9 percent increase over the same month a year ago.
