Port Houston is seeing its busiest year ever for containers.
TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit) October were 328,486, which was 11% more than October 2020, and November followed with 314,576 containers, 20% more than the same month last year.
Year-to-date through November, container TEUs are up 16% at Port Houston, reaching 3,150,062 TEUs and already exceeding the complete 2020 annual TEUs of 3,001,164, which was a record year. November 2021 was the 9th consecutive month of double digit growth at Port Houston for TEUs.
After a slow start to the year at Port Houston’s multi-purpose facilities, steel jumped 182% in October and 226% in November. Steel is up 48% year to date through November. Other sectors also saw increases in recent months, including lumber, up 230% year to date, and bagged goods, up 39% year to date. Auto units are up 13% year to date through November.
“The surge in demand is still felt throughout the supply chain, especially as importers rush product to the shelves for the holidays and build inventories in advance of temporary factory closures during Chinese New Year. We are expecting high levels of imports containers to continue well into 2022 and Port Houston is preparing to meet that demand,” said Roger Guenther, Executive Director at Port Houston. “Port Houston is accelerating expansion projects such as widening and deepening of the Houston Ship Channel to allow for neo-panamax vessels, adding additional wharves and container yard space to handle our fast-growing business, and developing of our regional maritime workforce.”
Port Houston is actively working with the local International Longshoremen Association (ILA) to ensure future labor availability through training and added support to prepare for future demand. The partnership has proved beneficial as more crane operators and maritime workers join the workforce to support port operations.
Port Houston container terminals are currently ranked 6th in the nation. Recently the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released their rankings and the Houston Ship Channel once again ranked number one in total tonnage in the United States. The Channel, which is made up of more than 200 public and private terminals, handled more than 275 million short tons of cargo during 2020, exceeding the next largest port by more than 50 million tons.
