Port Traffic Metrics: Houston, Jacksonville, Mexico
Houston: Strong Container Volumes Continue Steady Pace
The Port of Houston Authority "fully expects to top last year’s container volume with another record year in 2016," Executive Director Roger Guenther told to the Port Commission during its October 25 meeting.
Throughput at the Port Authority’s container terminals exceeded 1.5 million TEUs during the first 9 months of 2016, a 4.0 percent increase from January-September 2016. "Strong growth" is expected for the remainder of the year.
All told, the Port Authority’s general cargo and container terminals handled more than 26 million tons of cargo through September.
The Port Commission also acted on agenda items that support the Port Authority’s continued growth. That included the award of a $4 million gate operating and optical character recognition project to optimize and modernize the truck gate interchange process and enhance customer service levels at Bayport and Barbours Cut Container terminals.
During the meeting, Port Commission Chairman Janiece Longoria announced that the Government Finance Officers Association had awarded a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting to the Port Authority for the 42nd consecutive year. This award is the highest form of recognition in the area of government accounting and financial reporting, and represents a significant accomplishment by a government agency and its management.
Chairman Longoria also reported that the Port Authority "made history again" in support of its strategic objective of environmental leadership as the first public port in the world to meet the "new and more rigorous requirements" of the ISO 14001:2015 standard.
Record Year for JAXPORT Container Cargo Business
FY 2016 was a banner year for JAXPORT’s container trade, with throughput at a record 968,279 TEUs. That was up 5.8 percent from the year before and beat the previous record, 936,972 TEUs set in 2014. October/September is the port’s fiscal year.
The Asian container trade remains the fastest growing segment of JAXPORT’s container cargo business, up 19 percent in FY 2016 to 336,791 TEUs from 283,164 in FY 2015. Contributing to that growth were new and growing services calling Blount Island Marine Terminal, including the recently added 2M Alliance. Asia accounted for 35 percent of JAXPORT’s container business in FY 2016.
JAXPORT’s Puerto Rican container business grew nearly 7 percent.
Counting throughput of both public and private terminals, the port of Jacksonville moves more than 1.2 million container TEUs annually.
JAXPORT’s auto trade also fared well in FY 2016. That included imports totaling 467,898 imported vehicles, a 19 percent year/year increase. Throughout overall held steady at more than 636,000 units, maintaining JAXPORT’s ranking as one of the busiest U.S. vehicle handling ports.
Breakbulk cargoes (non-containerized cargo such as fertilizer, metals, forest products and perishables) increased 22 percent to nearly 888,000 tons shipped. A large portion of the growth was due to imports of paper from Finland and wood pulp from Brazil.
Additionally, JAXPORT achieved its 16th consecutive year of operating revenue growth, earning $59.7 million, up 6 percent from FY 2015.
Mexico Port Traffic: Gains Through September for Exports, Imports and Cruise
Mexico’s port system processed nearly 223.2 million metric tons of cargo during the first nine months of 2016, about the same as last year, cording to "preliminary" data compiled and reported by the federal port agency, Coordinación General de Puertos y Marina Mercante.
Imports accounted for 81.7 million tons (+10.8 percent), exports for 92.1 million tons (+1.9 percent) and domestic shipments for nearly 349.3 million tons (-13.8 percent).
The data show double-digit growth for agribulks, modest gains for petroleum and containerized cargo and a slight increase for non-petroleum liquids. Declines were posted by the breakbulk and bulk mineral sectors. Other data point to gains for cruise traffic, auto imports and container TEUs and declines in ship arrivals and auto exports.
The attachment provides additional detail.