North America’s dismal 2009 container volumes

- Volumes fell for the second year in a row, plunging 13% from 2008 to 44.3m teu, the lowest level since 2001. Losses of roughly equal magnitude afflicted the ports of all three countries - Canada (-11.6%), Mexico (-13.0%) and the US (-13.1%).

Despite the year's dismal numbers, the long term pattern remained positive with regional traffic growing by an annual average of 3.6% between 2000 and 2009.

Hardest hit by the 2009 slump were the US Pacific and Canadian Atlantic. Other regions fared little better, except the US Gulf, where throughput was little changed from 2008. Losses for the Canadian Pacific were ameliorated by Prince Rupert's skyrocketing growth. Mexico suffered double-digit declines despite solid gains for Lázaro Cárdenas and Salina Cruz's emergence as a potentially significant market contender.

The majority of ports posted year-on-year volume declines, but there were notable exceptions. Among the latter were Port Manatee (+234%), Prince Rupert (+45.8%), Wilmington, NC (+14.9), Lázaro Cárdenas (+11.6%), and Tampa (+10.1%). The Canadian Great Lakes port of Hamilton completed its first full shipping season as a container handler.

In 2009, Los Angeles and Long Beach remained the leading container ports in North America: others among the top five were New York/New Jersey, Savannah, and Port Metro Vancouver.

Port Metro Vancouver, Montreal, and Halifax ranked first, second, and third, respectively, among the ports of Canada, while Manzanillo, Lázaro Cárdenas, and Veracruz were the leaders in Mexico. The top five US ports - Los Angeles, Long Beach, New York/New Jersey, Savannah and Oakland accounted for 56% of total 2009 US container traffic.

(Source: Container Management)