The 16-month surge of cargo volume at the Port of New York and New Jersey reached an all-time high in October. A record-breaking 796,704 TEUs (440,514 lifts) were recorded in October, a 5.5 percent increase over the 755,437 TEUs (419,744 lifts) posted in October 2020. This increase crowns October as the month for the largest volume ever recorded at the port and brings the year-to-date total through October to 7,455,786 TEUs (4,134,601 lifts). The port is on track to significantly outpace its total cargo volume from 2020.
Imports in October at the Port of New York and New Jersey totaled 398,535 TEUs (220,616 lifts) versus 403,103 TEUs (223,474 lifts) in October 2020, a 1.1 percent decrease. From January through October, imports increased by 19.9 percent compared to the previous year, reaching 3,812,566 TEUs (2,118,136 lifts). For the same period of 2020, the port handled 3,179,449 import TEUs (1,787,064 lifts).
Exports increased by 1.7 percent in October, totaling 120,250 TEUs (65,057 lifts) versus 118,281 TEUs (65,174 lifts) in October 2020. For January through October, the Port of New York and New Jersey exported 1,134,439 TEUs (617,057 lifts), a 3.3 percent increase over the 1,098,390 TEUs (605,735 lifts) posted in the same period in 2020.
Export empties increased by 18.8 percent in October, totaling 275,389 TEUs versus 231,741 TEUs in October 2020. From January through October, export empties reached 2,486,993 TEUs, a 35.1 percent increase over the 1,840,608 TEUs posted during the same period of 2020. Import empties were up 12.2 percent from January through October compared to the same period in 2020.
Rail volume in October slowed by 8.5 percent from the previous year’s monthly figure, totaling 60,123 containers for October 2021. Rail volume, January through October 2021, was 2.8 percent greater than in the same period of 2020.
A total of 33,010 autos moved through the Port of New York and New Jersey in October, a decrease of 41.7 percent when compared to October 2020. Auto volume for January through October was 10.6 percent greater than in the same period of 2020.