NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fitch Ratings has published a quarterly snapshot detailing volume trends for its rated ports in the United States. Going forward, Fitch will continue to make this data available on a quarterly basis on www.fitchratings.com.
For calendar 2012, container throughput at Fitch's six largest rated US ports was up 0.6% over the previous year. Virginia Port Authority saw the largest annual increase at nearly 10%, followed by Port of Los Angeles at 1.7%. Volumes at the Port of New York and New Jersey, Port of Long Beach, and Oakland were all largely flat on a year over year basis. Seattle saw an 8% drop in throughput, driven by declines since July 2012 due to the shift of Grand Alliance traffic to the Port of Tacoma.
On a quarterly basis, third quarter 2012 (last quarter with all ports reporting data) was up 0.3% over third quarter 2011, reflecting steady throughput volumes ahead of the holiday season. Fourth quarter will likely be down slightly over a year prior, driven by lower volumes at Port of Los Angeles during the week long work stoppage in late November and early December and disruptions at Port of New York and New Jersey from Hurricane Sandy.
While volume measured in twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) has shown flat to negative growth in recent months at several large ports, U.S. retail sales has grown at around 4% in the fourth quarter of 2012, and has held steady at this growth rate for the last six months. This is comparable to levels seen pre-recession, and suggests the 'catch-up' phase of consumption seen post-recession in 2010 and 2011 may be ending and consumption patterns may be stabilizing. We may expect to see a similar trend in port import volumes as consumption stabilizes.
For any questions regarding this data set, please contact the analyst listed below.
Link to Port Trend Data:
http://www.fitchratings.com/web_content/sectors/gipf/fitch_us_port_data_feb2013.pdf
Additional information is available on www.fitchratings.com.
Applicable Criteria and Related Research:
--'Rating Criteria for
Infrastructure and Project Finance' (July 12, 2012).
Applicable Criteria and Related Research:
Rating Criteria for
Infrastructure and Project Finance
http://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=682867
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