| Experts differ whether cargo drift from west to east coast is permanent |
| His:517 Updatetime:2015-10-19 |
Oct.8--EXPERTS differ on whether US west coast ports have recovered from the mass diversion of cargo to the east coast - via Panama and Suez - prompted by labour strife, or if last summer's record LA-Long Beach volumes were just a peak season blip when shippers put transit speed above costs.
IHS Maritime media see the west coast largely recovered from the east coast cargo migration, but Drewry Maritime Research says these record volumes only reflect a sudden demand for speedy delivery for Christmas shoppers.
Supporting Drewry's view is fresh data on the west coast employers' Pacific Maritime Association website, showing how costly the new longshore contract is.
In recent years, dockers have been paid for 500,000 and 580,000 hours a week, but the arrival of bigger ships with more cargo, the manhours paid now come to 650,000 to almost 700,000 a week, says the PMA.
While container volumes are eight per cent higher year on year - equalling throughputs of 2006-07, man hours paid were far fewer, and paid for at a lower rate.
Mark Sisson, who leads the marine analysis group at AECOM, said multiple handling of containers is the only logical explanation for the drop in terminal productivity.
According to Piers data, ships calling at LA-Long Beach average more than 5,500 container moves per vessel call.
That is more than at any other port in the world and at least two to three times more any other US port except for the Port of New York and New Jersey, which makes 4,000 moves per vessel call, according to IHS media.
As Drewry sees it, further migration of Asian imports from the west coast to the Atlantic and Gulf coasts can be expected in the lead up to the opening of the expanded Panama Canal, due next April, reports London's Loadstar.
The construction of bigger locks on the waterway will enable containerships of up to 13,000 TEU to transit, more than doubling the size of ships that can be deployed on Asia-US east coast loops, reducing unit costs for carriers.
Even without that, east coast ports achieved an impressive 23.5 per cent year-on-year growth, benefiting from the diversion of cargo due to the dispute and the establishment of a number of new "opportunist" east coast services by container lines such as Zim.
In July, west coast imports recorded some growth, albeit less than one per cent, while the pace of growth on the east coast slowed to 14 per cent, said Drewry.
August's reversal of the migration trend, was because peak season traffic which demanded faster transits, said Drewry, giving LA-Long Beach a short-term edge.
Port statistics confirm this. Savannah reported a 16.6 per cent increase in import containers between January and August, while imports at New York-New Jersey were up 12.7 per cent on a year-to-date basis as at July. Charleston, South Carolina, was up 15 per cent for its fiscal year. |
