By Theo Notteboom
The table provides an overview of the TEU throughput in 2018 in the top 10 container ports in North America and also shows the growth figures 2017/2018 and 2007/2018. The figures lead to the following conclusions.
The top 10 ports in North America handled 47 million TEU in 2018
The top 10 ports in North America handled 47 million TEU in 2018 or +4.9% compared to 2017 and +23.5% compared to 2007. In comparison, these figures were +4.7% and +94.4% respectively for the top 10 container ports in mainland China (183 million TEU in 2018) and +5.5% and +25.3% respectively for the top 10 container ports in Europe (65 million TEU in 2018).
San Pedro Bay (Los Angeles and Long Beach) remains most important container port region
The San Pedro Bay, with neighbouring ports Los Angeles and Long Beach, remains the most important container port region in North America. The port of New York/New Jersey occupies the third position. The top 3 ports remained unchanged since 2007. Together, these gateways handled about 25 million TEU in 2018 compared to about 21 million TEU in 2007.
All top 10 ports handled more containers compared to 2017 and pre-crisis year 2007.
Houston is the only port with a double digit growth in 2018. Hampton Roads and Los Angeles saw very modest growth compared to 2017. West coast ports Seattle/Tacoma, Vancouver and Oakland show the strongest growth in the period 2007-2018. The container throughputs of LA/Long Beach and Savannah is ‘only’ 11 to 13% above the pre-crisis level.
