Containerized freight in 20- and 40-foot boxes was up 28 percent in the Philadelphia port in April compared with the same month a year ago, port officials said.
The U.S. import boom continued in April, with seaborne tonnage volumes up 8.9 percent from a year earlier in the nation’s ports. Container cargo imports were up 8.7 percent in March, said a report by the research firm Panjiva.
Philadelphia handled 49,000 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs), a standard measure for container cargo, in April, compared with 38,800 in April 2016. “Our growth rate is a leader of the pack,” said Jeffrey Theobald, chief executive officer of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, which owns 15 piers and terminals on the Delaware River.
With the long-awaited Panama Canal expansion completed, Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC) last August began a weekly freight route to Philadelphia, hauling grapes, blueberries, other various fruits, and cargoes from Chile, Peru, and Ecuador, said Eric Holt, whose family runs Packer marine terminal.
Source: hellenicshippingnews.com
