Superstorm Sandy wreaked havoc along the US east coast in
late October causing destruction across its path. Ports up and down the coast
suffered varying degrees of damage. Perhaps the worst hit was that of the
largest East Coast port and third largest in the US, the Port of New York – New
Jersey. The port closed at midnight October 29th but due to electrical
problems, wind and flood damage, the port was slow to reopen. Port Elizabeth
was the first to reopen on November 4th followed by Port Newark
Container Terminal and the Global Terminal in Jersey City on November 5th
and by November 6th all terminals had reopened.
How much freight was diverted to other ports? According to
the port commerce director of the Port Authority of New York – New Jersey, the
port did not lose that much business, only about 6,000 containers that were
diverted to the Port of Virginia. However, it appears that more containers were
actually diverted and to other ports as well.
Although closing for a brief time, once reopened, the Port
of Virginia did note that it worked two diverted vessels and handled between
5,800 and 6,500 additional containers and 3,500 automobiles bound for the Port
of New York-New Jersey. The Port of Halifax also noted that cargo volumes had
“tripled” as a result of Hurricane Sandy. Attempts to reach the Port for additional
information have not been successful to date.
The Port of Baltimore closed Monday, October 29th
and reopened Tuesday, October 30th in the evening. According to a
port official, “We are receiving some of the diverted cargo from the Port of
New York-New Jersey. It’s a combination of containers and automobiles. As soon
as the challenge facing The Port of New York-New Jersey is resolved, the cargo
will go back to New York-New Jersey.”
Maersk Lines reworked its east coast route and temporarily
shifted containers to Florida’s Port Everglades, Philadelphia and Virginia
ports.
While still too early to tell what the effects on ports were
in regards to diverted containers, Zepol’s October data may provide some
insight.
For the month of October, import shipments are down almost
19% compared to October 2011 for US east coast ports. Certainly Superstorm
Sandy is not to be blamed for the entire decline as the slowing economy and
perhaps an earlier peak may be attributing this decline as well.
As noted on the chart, a sharp decline in shipments occurred
beginning week 3. During this week, Hurricane Sandy had already formed and had
hit Jamaica on the 24th and Cuba on the 25th before
heading up the US east coast. There may have been some negative effects on the
southern east coast ports such as Jacksonville, Savannah and Charleston which
could have attributed to the drop in shipments for the third week.
For week 4, U.S. imports to the east coast dropped, on
average, about 31% from the week prior and 44% from week 4 in 2011.
Not surprising compared to same period in 2011, import
shipments to the Port of New York – New Jersey declined almost 55% for week 4
and for the month, import shipments declined about 24%.
The Port of Philadelphia was also hit hard as import
shipments declined over 47% for week 4 and 12.4% for the month. Same case for
Baltimore which suffered 30% decline in import shipments for the week the storm
hit and for the month of October, a 47.4% decline.
November should bring some normalcy back to the ports as many
work through backlogs. Permanent diversion of cargo away from particular ports
is not anticipated. However, there still remains some road and rail
infrastructure damage which may cause slight delays in transport from some of
the ports.
