PIERS Global Intelligence Reveals Shipping Undeterred by Gulf Disaster

NEWARK, N.J., July 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite the significant environmental impacts from BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, PIERS Global Intelligence Solutions reports that Gulf trade levels remain fairly constant. With double-digit growth since January 2010, monthly TEU volume in the Gulf ports dropped by 4.1 percent in April, but then resurfaced in May with a healthy 8 percent gain from the previous year.

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Enter now the 100th day since the disaster, inbound container shipments in the Gulf increased a modest 2 percent to 326,112 TEUs, while outbound shipments increased 13.1 percent or 497,927 TEUs year-to-date.  

Of the three main ports closest to the explosion – New Orleans, Gulfport and Mobile – only Mobile's traffic decreased last May. TEU volume in the ports of New Orleans and Gulfport swelled by 27 percent and 31 percent respectively, in May, year over year, while TEU volume at Mobile declined 27.6 percent during the same month.

The lead Gulf port remains the Port of Houston. Its year-to-date volume of 544,585 TEUs is up 6.9 percent, handling 67 percent of containerized Gulf traffic, but down 6 percent when assessing traffic share for the five year period ending 2009. The port of New Orleans gained 2 percent during the past five years and in 2009, increased 12 percent in container traffic, primarily due to exports to Italy. The Port of Mobile's volume soared from 24,483 containers in 2005 to 87,649 containers in 2009; that is a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.6 percent.

About PIERS Global Intelligence Solutions

PIERS is the primary source of U.S. waterborne trade information and a leader in global trade solutions. Launched over 30 years ago by The Journal of Commerce as the Port Import Export Reporting Service, its first venture in electronic information, PIERS quickly became the standard reference on container trade for the maritime industry. A roster of over 6,000 private industry, trade association, and domestic and foreign government clients, representing more than 40 countries, relies on PIERS to translate trade data into meaningful intelligence that guides their global business strategies. For more information visit www.piers.com or call 800-952-3839.

About UBM Global Trade - UBM Global Trade is the leading provider of proprietary data, news, business intelligence and analytical content supporting commercial maritime, rail, trucking, warehousing and logistics industries worldwide. The company's portfolio of more than 100 online, print and interactive workflow business solutions includes The Journal of Commerce, Breakbulk, RailResource, PIERS Global Intelligence Solutions and an array of international trade and transportation databases and directories. UBM Global Trade, a subsidiary of United Business Media Limited, is headquartered in Newark, NJ, with offices throughout the United States. For more information, explore www.ubmglobaltrade.com or call 800-223-0243 (+1-973-848-7250 outside the U.S. or Canada).

SOURCE PIERS Global Intelligence Solutions