Tacoma Imports Plunge 35.5 Percent

Steep drop in June comes despite port’s busiest container month of 2009
Containerized imports at the Port of Tacoma, Wash., plunged 35.5 percent in June, the steepest year-over-year decline the Pacific Northwest port has seen this year.

The drop pushed overall loaded international container traffic at Tacoma down 28.2 percent in June compared to the same month last year despite modest improvement in the port’s container business on a month-to-month basis.

Tacoma’s combined import and export container volume, measured in loaded TEUs, grew 6.6 percent from May to June, reaching its highest level of 2009 so far, 86,607 TEUs. Imports also reached an annual high of 43,158 TEUs.

But the overall total also compares to Tacoma’s strongest month of 2008, which came just before volume started falling toward historic lows.

On a month-to-month basis, Tacoma’s loaded inbound container volume expanded 12.9 percent.

That left the Washington state port’s loaded international container traffic down 21.4 percent in the first six months of 2009 compared to the first half of 2008, including a 26.8 percent drop in inbound volume.

Source: JOC