The pattern of monthly record-setting volume continued in May at the Port of New York and New Jersey. Total volume for May 2019 was 643,706 TEUs (366,366 lifts), an 8.4 percent increase over May of 2018, which posted 593,625 TEUs (340,890 lifts). The addition of May’s volume brings the yearly total volume to 3,041,814 TEUs, a 7.7 percent increase over the same time period of 2018.
Import loads (TEUs) posted double-digit gains in May at the Port of New York and New Jersey, rising by 12.8 percent. Total import loads in May reached 340,680 TEUs (193,482 lifts) compared to 302,081 TEUs (173,092 lifts) the previous year. For the period of January through May 2019, imported loads reached 1,544,354 TEUs (878,855 lifts), a 6.7 percent increase from the 1,447,087 TEUs (828,942 lifts) recorded in the same period of 2018.
In May, export loads (TEUs) at the Port increased by 1.5 percent from the previous year, totaling 132,315 TEUs (73,298 lifts) versus 130,341 TEUs (72,459 lifts) recorded in May 2018. Export loads for the period of January through May 2019 reached 618,855 TEUs (342,423 lifts), a 1.3 percent decrease over the 626,884 TEUs (347,349 lifts) posted during the same period of 2018.
Export empties in May increased by 6.1 percent, totaling 169,448 TEUs compared to 159,743 TEUs in May 2018. For the five-month period of January through May, export empties reached 872,497 TEUs, a 17.2 percent increase over the 744,675 TEUs recorded during the same period of 2018.
From January through May 2019, figures for import empties (6,108 TEUs) dropped by 5.4 percent when compared to the previous year (6,457 TEUs). Import empties for May 2019 at the Port of New York and New Jersey totaled 1,263 TEUs compared to 1,460 TEUs in May of 2018, a 13.5 percent decrease.
Rail volume for May 2019 decreased by 3.4 percent from the previous year’s figure, totaling 55,757 containers. Rail volume for the first five months of 2019 was 6 percent greater than the same period of 2018.
In May, 44,911 autos moved through the Port of New York and New Jersey, a decrease of 14.1 percent when compared to May 2018. Auto volume for January through May 2019 rose by 1.7 percent from the same period of 2018.