Port Houston is seeing its busiest year ever for containers.
TEU throughput in October was 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 TEU levels are up 16% at Port Houston, reaching 3,150,062 TEU and already exceeding the complete 2020 annual TEU of 3,001,164, which was a record year.
November 2021 was the ninth consecutive month of double digit growth at Port Houston for container throughput.
“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,” he added.
The port wrote that it is working with the local International Longshoremen Association (ILA) to ensure future labour availability through training and added support to prepare for future demand.
Furthermore, the facilities container terminals are currently ranked sixth in the nation.
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.
