A record 1 million tonnes of teus every annual have moved to US West Coast ports, including Gulf of Mexico ports being major winners, as per the report of Descartes Systems Group.

The study of the changes in US imports since 2021 revealed that the long lines for entry into ports like the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles due to a pandemic-related increase in demand of goods to the back of the barrel, with fears about labor disputes at the Southern Californian ports leading to shippers deciding to send their goods to ports like Houston.

Imports from Asia contributed the highest in the growth of volume in Gulf Coast ports. The report however revealed that a less significant change towards Northern European container imports was taking place at the same time.

Chris Jones, EVP Industry at Descartes Chris Jones, the Descartes EVP Industry said that “shifts in the volume of container imports coming from West Coast ports are top of the list again in light of long-running ILWU-PMA contract discussions”.

East as well as Gulf Coast ports have generally over-performed West Coast ports in terms of their growth rates over recent years in the midst of a continuous shift east of cargo inbound volumes, which started with the opening of the Panama Canal in late 2016. The fundamental nature of this shift was further accelerated due to port congestion, and the growing doubt about the negotiations among West Coast port employers and dockworker unions.

Descartes stated that “changing the flow of trade isn’t something that is easy to do However, the amount of change in volume that took place within a relatively short period of time in the course of the pandemic is testimony to the nimbleness of logisticians.”

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