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The big growth spurt in cargo volumes that some East Coast ports have been experiencing seems to be slowing as the specter of the West Coast port labor conflict recedes, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Growth in container volumes at the Port of Savannah slowed to 10.3 percent year-over-year in July, compared with 23.2 percent in June. Container volumes fell 2 percent to 324,242 TEUs, from June to July at the port, mainly due to a fall-off in exports. Import growth is slowing as well. Loaded containers of imported goods passing through the Port of Savannah grew by 16.4 percent in July, year-over-year. That rate fell from 38.8 percent in June and an average of 33.9 percent for the first six months of the year.
At the Port of Virginia, year-over-year volume grew 8.8 percent in July, compared with 14.5 percent in June and a monthly average of 10.3 percent since the beginning of the year, according to port statistics.
Labor strife slowed or stopped work at several West Coast ports starting late last year before employers and the dockworkers’ union agreed to a new contract in late February. Not all West Coast ports have fully recovered: inbound container volume at the Port of Los Angeles fell 3.5 percent
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year-over-year in July.
The West Coast delays led to cargo being rerouted to East Coast ports by many retailers, including Wal-Mart and Lowe’s, for a change many predicted to be permanent.
"I think some people got carried away on how much volume was permanently shifting away from the West Coast," said Walter Kemmsies, chief economist at Moffatt & Nichol, to the WSJ. "Very little of what shifted away is going to stay permanently on the East Coast."
Kemmsies forecasts that East Coast port volume growth will slow to between 5 percent and 8 percent, based on his broader forecast of economic expansion.
For more of the Wall Street Journal story: www.wsj.com
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