July Records Highest Container Traffic In Ports of New York And New Jersey

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The Port of New York and New Jersey are America’s third-busiest ports.  The total traffic last month rose to 588,918 twenty-foot equivalent units, a gain of 14.1% from a year earlier and 4.7% higher than June.  It is an all-time high. Labour problem in the West Coast ports has created a surge in container volumes through diversion to East Coast ports in 2015.

However, ports along the East Coast saw the rate of growth diminishing in July.  Traffic is also rebounding on the West Coast, with ports from Long Beach to Seattle reporting strong increases in container volumes last month.  The numbers indicate that shipping routes are slowly returning to normal.  New York and New Jersey also saw a smaller increase in imports of loaded containers.  The strong port volumes on both coasts are a sign that U.S. imports as a whole remain strong, defying signs of a slowdown in global trade and unease about the economic health of major trade partners, said Jonathan Starks, an analyst with FTR Transportation Intelligence.

FTR predicts that U.S. imports will grow 5.5% in 2015, compared with 3.4% in 2014.  The stock-market turbulence in China will not show up in U.S. indicating the dollar is strong and trade is robust.

 Source: Wall Street Journal‎