NORTH AMERICA

10% rise for New York and New Jersey traffic..

22 years ago

The port complex has increased its first half year traffic by 10% over 2003 with Asia continuing to drive the increase in containerised cargo. 630,000 TEUs to and from Asia were handled in the port during the first half of 2004, accounting for 42% of the port’ s total market. Last year, Asia surpassed Europe as the port’ s leading trading partner. In the month of June alone, containerised imports from the Far East were up 32%. Latin American traffic was up 19% in the first half whilst overall, the port’ s intermodal rail traffic increased 27%. In value terms the port handled $55 billion of cargo in the first six months of 2004.

“It is no longer a question of if our nation’s transport infrastructure will start to fail, but when,” Mr Raymond said. Short-sea shipping services could move cargo from congested ports to ready ports with available capacity,such as ports in Wilmington and Philadelphia.

Port commerce director Richard M. Larrabee says: “The second half of 2004 will witness two major events that set the stage for continued cargo growth. The first stage of the expansion of our ExpressRail facility in Elizabeth is scheduled to become operational and our 45-foot deepening project is on target for completion.”