Port of Oakland experiences sluggish February container volumes as retail exercise sputters

The Port of Oakland has reported one other sluggish month for container quantity flows, mirroring a world development that has seen maritime transport demand droop from its hyperactive pandemic highs.

Port leaders cited 4 causes for the drop, saying first that home inventories have remained excessive since retail gross sales fell in February, which has dampened cargo volumes for U.S. West Coast ports. And second, a robust greenback is impeding export volumes. These financial traits echo latest experiences on cargo imports by the Nationwide Retail Federation (NRF).

A 3rd issue inflicting lackluster quantity out west is that West Coast ports have been dropping market share to ports on America’s East and Gulf Coasts, the Port of Oakland stated. That evaluation aligns with statistics from the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) exhibiting that the Port of Savannah just lately recorded the second-busiest February in its historical past.

The fourth purpose is that exports have been on the decline since 2020, a lower that was initially jump-started by tariffs imposed by the U.S. and China, the port stated. These numbers then continued to say no in the course of the pandemic because of product provide chain disruptions and the shortage of empty containers. That criticism is acquainted to retailers, who’ve been lobbying the White Home all through the Trump and Biden administrations to repeal these tariffs, stating that they’re paid by U.S.-based importers, which then cross the additional value on to customers, finally fanning inflation and slowing industrial funding.

By the numbers, the California port stated the variety of full twenty-foot containers (TEUs) it dealt with dropped 23% in February, with 113,814 TEU’s transiting the port in distinction to 147,620 TEUs in February 2022. Extra particularly, the Port of Oakland stated its full imports fell 32% in February in comparison with that month the 12 months earlier than, whereas full exports declined by 10.6%. Likewise, empty TEUs dropped 14% in comparison with February 2022, registering 40,023 TEUs this February versus 46,768 TEUs in February 2022.