WASHINGTON: U.S. East and Gulf Coast ports have been winning the market share battle in overall U.S. containerized ocean trade since 2008, and in 2015 they overcame West Coast ports in containerized imports, too.
Combined, East and Gulf Coast ports have consistently handled the majority of U.S. containerized exports over the past decade-and-a-half. But data shows the rate of growth among West Coast ports has hit a slump that goes well beyond a year-end 2014 anomaly tied to congestion related to protracted longshore labor talks between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association. That erosion in growth continued into 2015. U.S. West Coast ports controlled more than 50 percent of U.S. containerized imports through 2014, before falling behind ports on the other two coasts, combined, last year.
To examine the shift, it’s important to look back to 2000, a neutral year in that it preceded the September 11 terrorist attacks and the 2002 U.S. West Coast longshore labor lockout. The charts on the following pages illustrate the trends of the last 16 years, by aggregating East and Gulf Coast port volumes handled primarily by the International Longshoremen’s Association and comparing them with West Coast volumes handled by the ILWU.
In 2000, U.S. West Coast ports handled 56.8 percent of all U.S. containerized imports. By 2014 that share had dropped to 52.4 percent, and then to 49.5 percent last year. That’s a market share loss of 7.3 percentage points over the 16 years.
On the outbound side, East and Gulf Coast ports handled 58.9 percent of U.S. containerized exports in 2000, 60.6 percent in 2014 and 63.1 percent in 2015, a climb of 4.1 percentage points over the same span.
Simply put, West Coast ports held more than 50 percent of total U.S. containerized trade from 2000 through 2007 — achieving a 50.5 percent share in 2000 and 2007. The turning point came in 2008, when East and Gulf Coast ports grabbed the market lead with a 50.7 percent share, which has since grown to a 55.2 percent. West Coast ports lost 5.6 percent of their share of total trade while East and Gulf Coast ports increased their share by the same amount.
West Coast ports handled 14.3 million 20-foot-equivalent container units, or 44.8 percent of the total 31.9 million TEUs of trade in 2015; 4.4 million TEUs, or 36.9 percent, of the 12 million-TEU U.S. export trade; and 9.9 million TEUs, or 49.5 percent, of the 19.9 million-TEU import trade. On a year-over-year basis, U.S. exports through West Coast ports fell 9.8 percent, imports declined 1.8 percent, and overall West Coast port trade tumbled 4.4 percent.
Those numbers fell short of East and Gulf Coast ports, where U.S. exports inched up 0.1 percent, imports jumped 10 percent, and overall trade surged 5.5 percent.
Total trade in all three coastal regions in 2015 eked out a 0.8 percent year-over-year gain, with U.S. exports down 3.8 percent and imports up 3.9 percent.
The Southern California ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach together handled 10.4 million laden TEUs in 2015, 32.5 percent of all U.S. containerized trade, 23.2 percent of all containerized exports and 38.2 percent of all imports. The two ports held a combined 62.8 percent share of the U.S. West Coast’s 4.4 million-TEU export market and a combined 77.1 percent of the West Coast’s 9.9 million-TEU import market in 2015.
Mainland China again was the primary trading partner of U.S. West Coast ports, accounting for 36.4 percent of the 4.4 million TEUs in coastal U.S. exports and 62.4 percent of the 9.9 million TEUs in U.S. imports. Japan ranked second, with 13.4 percent of the export trade and 4.8 percent of the import trade. Upstart Vietnam, with 4.8 percent of the U.S. West Coast import trade, spiked 6.5 percent above 2014 and ranked third among U.S. import partners in 2015. Among the top 10 U.S. West Coast export trading partners, sixth-ranked Vietnam was the only country to register year-over-year growth last year, with exports to the U.S. West Coast up 7.7 percent.
The numbers show the importance labor stability and port performance play in directing growth or decline in coastal container market share and, significantly, shippers’ grudges.