Volumes of containerized cargo at terminals operated by the Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA), which includes the ports of Seattle and Tacoma, rebounded in June after three consecutive months of year-over-year declines.
NWSA terminals handled 351,284 TEUs for the month, an 8.6 percent increase from the same month a year ago, according to the latest data from the ports.
Total international container volumes jumped 11.3 percent year-over-year to 287,711 TEUs, as imports climbed 8.8 percent to 144,491 TEUs, the most since 2010, and exports swelled 14 percent to 143,220 TEUs, the most since 2005, NWSA said.
Throughput of domestic cargo, however, slipped another 2.2 percent to 63,573 TEUs compared with June, with volumes to/from Alaska falling 4.5 percent to 52,948 TEUs due to continued soft market conditions and shipments to/from Hawaii sliding 2.3 percent to 10,624 TEUs for the month.
Despite the June bounce-back, total cargo volumes at the Pacific Northwest ports have now fallen in four of the first six months of 2018 on a year-over-year basis and are down 2.7 percent to just under 1.8 million TEUs compared with the first half of 2017.
In non-containerized cargo, breakbulk volumes have grown 29.3 percent to 120,544 metric tons through the first six months of 2018, but year-to-date auto volumes have now fallen 8.6 percent to 68,053 units.