Port of Virginia Container Volume Rises Little in June
The Port of Virginia saw a small gain in container volume last month and a smidge more than that for the fiscal year that ended June 30, port officials announced July 12.
The number of containers handled in June, measured in standard 20-foot units, rose 1.5%, to 216,672 from 213,517 in the same month a year ago.
“This was the best June on record in terms of TEU volume, but we're off in many categories when compared with last year,” John Reinhart, Virginia Port Authority executive director and CEO, said in a statement.
For the July to June fiscal year just ended, the port saw a year-over-year TEU gain of 2.5%, to 2.57 million from 2.51 million a year earlier.
“We finished fiscal year 2016 in positive territory, but our gains were very modest,” Reinhart said. “We forecast for muted container volumes, and that was on-target. We are approaching peak cargo season, and we expect to see some gains, but they will also be modest.”
Year-over year, truck-container volume was down in June and for the fiscal year, falling 3.5% and 1.4%, respectively.
Trucks carried nearly two-thirds of the cargo that moved through the port in calendar year 2015.
Rail, on the other hand, which handled a third of the port's cargo last year, grew in volume in June and for the fiscal year, rising 12.9% and 9.7%, respectively.
On a percentage basis, the port moves more cargo by rail than any other East Coast port.
The port's announcement came a day after the MOL Benefactor left Hampton Roads bound for Savannah, Georgia.
It was the biggest containership to call on the port yet, after transiting the expanded Panama Canal on July 1 and stopping at the Port of New York-New Jersey.
Reinhart said it was the first in a wave of increasingly larger ships that will begin to call on the port.
Starting at the end of the month, five ships slightly bigger than the MOL Benefactor are scheduled to stop in Hampton Roads, he said.
No fiscal-year financial results were released July 12.
"That will come at the board meeting," said Joe Harris, an authority spokesman, referring to a board of commissioners meeting set for later this month.
Only projected results will be released because of ongoing audits.
In its fiscal year 2015 release last July, the port announced forecasted results showing a $16.1 million profit, a $31.5 million swing from a loss the prior year.
In late October, the authority's 2015 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report stated that the port ended fiscal year 2015 with a consolidated operating profit of $13.6 million.
It was the authority's first operating profit since 2008.
