Last month was the busiest August ever for the Port of New York and New Jersey, with rising imports driving gains, the port said Wednesday, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Nearly 330,000 containers passed through terminals overseen by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a 7.9 percent gain from a year earlier. Imports were up 5.2 percent, a sign that the recovering economy and the stronger dollar are increasing U.S. consumer demand.
“The U.S. dollar is definitely playing a role,” said Cathy Robertson, a consultant with Logistics Trends and Insights in Atlanta who studies port traffic. “I also think we may be seeing peak season come early.”
U.S. ports typically see imports spike in September and October as retailers bulk up inventories for the Thanksgiving-to-Christmas shopping season. The ports of Long Beach, Calif. and Savannah, Ga., both key ports for container shipping, have posted record levels of cargo, mainly driven by imports, in recent months.
Robertson said that the strong numbers at the Port of New York and New Jersey, the largest East Coast U.S. seaport, are a sign that a significant portion of traffic that the East Coast gained after a West Coast slowdown last year related to labor strife, has remained on the East Coast even after business on the West returned to normal.
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