Last year was a record breaking year for the Port of New York and New Jersey. In 2018, we crossed the 7 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) mark for the first time. To be exact, the Port moved 7,179,788 TEUs through its terminals in 2018, a 7 percent increase over last year. The momentum continued through the last month of the year with total volume, import loads, and export empties showing the following gains in December:
- Total volume increased by 12 percent, totaling 609,390 TEUs (346,926 containers) versus 543,966 TEUs (311,843 containers) in December 2017.
- Import loads (TEUs) were up by 15.7 percent when compared to the previous year, although export loads (TEUs) decreased by 4.3 percent.
- Export empties rose by 18.8 percent, totaling 175,037 TEUs versus 147,353 TEUs in December 2017, although import empties decreased by 5.2 percent.
Import loads for December 2018 totaled 317,332 TEUs (181,517 containers) versus 274,366 TEUs (157,600 containers) in December 2017, a 15.7 percent increase. For fiscal year (FY) 2018, imported loads reached 3,676,113 TEUs (2,096,906 containers) versus 3,396,469 TEUs (1,946,413 containers) for the FY 2017, an 8.2 percent increase. Import empties (in TEUs) were down 18 percent for the same time period.
Export loads for December 2018 totaled 115,927 TEUs (63,987 containers) versus 121,093 TEUs (66,727 containers) in December 2017, a 4.3 percent decrease in TEU volume. For FY 2018, exported loads reached 1,476,780 TEUs (818,167 containers) versus 1,415,322 TEUs (786,366 containers) for FY 2017, a 4.3 percent increase. Export empties totaled 2,010,100 TEUs for FY 2018 versus 1,878,535 TEUs for FY 2017, an increase of 7 percent.
Rail volume increased by 6.7 percent from 2017, totaling 51,954 lifts for December 2018 compared to 48,690 in 2017. Rail volume for FY 2018 showed a 13.8 percent increase with 645,760 lifts compared to 567,649 in the previous year. December marked the tenth consecutive month of rail volume above 50,0000 lifts.
Autos moved through the Port of New York and New Jersey totaled 45,289 in December, a decrease of 21.4 percent when compared with the previous year. Auto volume totaled 573,035 for FY 2018 versus 577,223 in 2017, a 0.7 percent decrease.