WASHINGTON: Georgia and Virginia ports are seeing cargo expansion level off after big gains earlier in 2015 amid labor strife on the West Coast Growth in shipping-container volumes at the Port of Savannah slowed to 10.3% in July from 23.2% in June.
The red-hot growth in shipping volumes at some East Coast ports appears to be slowing as the hampering effects of the labor strife that hit West Coast ports earlier this year recede. Growth in shipping container volumes at the Port of Savannah slowed to 10.3% year-over-year in July, compared with 23.2% in June, according the Georgia Ports Authority.
The total number of twenty-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, a common measure of container volumes, fell 2%, to 324,242, from June to July at the port, mainly the result of a fall-off in exports. Import growth, however, is slowing as well. Loaded containers of imported goods passing through the Port of Savannah grew by 16.4% in July, when compared with the same month a year ago. That rate fell from 38.8% in June and an average of 33.9% for the first six months of the year.
At the Port of Virginia, year-over-year TEU volume grew 8.8% in July, compared with 14.5% in June and a monthly average of 10.3% since the start of 2015, according to port statistics.
Starting late last year, labor strife slowed or stopped work entirely at several West Coast ports, leading to long lines of ships in the harbors at the neighboring ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Terminal owners and the dockworkers’ union agreed to a new contract in late February, but not all West Coast ports have fully recovered: Inbound container volume at the Port of Los Angeles fell 3.5% year-over-year in July.