The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey’s latest figures reveal a sharp drop in container traffic, both month-on-month and year-to-date compared with 2022.
The declines reflect the changing nature of trade and the general return to normality following the chaotic period of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the numbers also testify to destocking at warehouses across the US taking place at a slower rate than expected and to this year’s peak shipping season taking shape later than usual. It also needs to be noted that in 2021 and 2022, NY/NJ set records when it came to handling containers.
In September, the port complex processed 660,553 TEU, down 21.6% on the 842,219 TEU handled in the corresponding month of 2022. In the first nine months of this year, total traffic of 5,79M TEU compared with 7.37M TEU in 2022, a decrease of 21.4%.
The fall in traffic affected most segments of NY/NJ’s container business with imports (339,033 TEU) handled in the month of September down 19.9% on the same month of 2022. For the January/September (inclusive) period the 2.96 M TEU handled compared with 3.77M TEU in the same period of 2022. This represented a decline of 21.5%.
The port’s containerised export traffic has proved resilient, with volumes edging back just 2.8% in September to 100,379 TEU. Between January and the end of September, exports totalled 957,931 TEU, a 1.6% decline on the previous year.
The port’s rail traffic has also decreased this year, falling by 12.6% in September and by a slightly higher 13.1% in the first nine months of the year.
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