Port of New York and New Jersey Handles Record Container Traffic for a February
Container traffic at the Port of New York and New Jersey continued at a strong pace with February 2017 activity setting a record for the busiest February ever at the port. This has also been the port’s busiest two-month start to a year, port managers announced March 28.
In February, port workers handled 507,066 20-foot-equivalent units, an increase of 1.2% over the 500,659 TEUs handled in February 2016, the previous high point for a second month.
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This year’s two-month total at New York/New Jersey was 1.02 million TEUs, up 4.6% over the January-February 2016 level of 979,669 TEUs. The first month of this year was also a record for a January.
Vehicle traffic at the port for the first two months is up 15.9%, year-over-year.
Part of the record-breaking activity included imports and exports of empty containers to keep equipment balanced on both sides of the ocean. For the first two months of the year, New York/Jersey handled 2.53 loaded containers for each empty box. The corresponding period in 2016 had fewer empties, with a ratio of 2.68-to-1, loaded-to-empty.
For the first two months of this year, the port’s market share was 49.5% of U.S. North Atlantic ports, 27.7% of North American East Coast ports and 14.3% of all U.S. ports.
