Container flow in August slumped in Houston, while global demand for crude oil continued to fuel exports through Corpus Christi, Texas. The Port of New Orleans reported steel and rubber as its top breakbulk commodities during August.

Port Houston sees declines in container volumes, steel shipments, general imports

Port Houston handled 307,624 twenty-foot equivalent units in August, a year-over-year (y/y) decrease of 20%.

Overall container volumes and freight flows at Port Houston declined in August compared to last year, led by a 48% y/y drop in empty containers to 40,398 TEUs.

Roger Guenther, executive director at Port Houston, said retail imports slowed in August.

“Retail imports have cooled off somewhat, since the historic demand we saw post-pandemic,” Guenther said during the port’s monthly commission meeting Tuesday. “We’re not exporting a lot of empties back to Asia so they can be filled with imports like they were a year and a half, two years ago.”

Guenther said the monthly decline is not too concerning since August 2022 was the biggest month ever at Port Houston for container volume, with 344,163 TEUs.

“Overall container volume is down only 4% year to date at 2.5 million TEUs, which is great compared to what’s going on in the rest of the country,” Guenther said. “We’re not going to expect to peak for the remainder of the year, but that’s all as expected. We continue to maintain volumes that are good, solid, but flat. We expected that after a record year in 2022.”

Imports of steel products such as rail and oil industry components were down 39% y/y in August at 294,338 tons. General cargo imports were down 26% y/y at 608,528 tons.

General exports were down 3% y/y at 1.1 million tons, while steel exports were down 72% y/y at 29,330 tons.

Total steel import/export tonnage is down 14% year to date compared to 2022 at 3.2 million tons. Port Houston’s total revenue tonnage was down 15% y/y at 4.7 million tons in August.

Load imports were down 17% y/y at 149,660 TEUs, while loaded exports were down 6% y/y in August at 110,008 TEUs.

Port Houston recorded 710 ship calls in August, a 3% y/y decline, while barge calls totaled 308, a 79% y/y increase.

Crude oil exports rise in August at Port of Corpus Christi 

The Port of Corpus Christi posted an 11% y/y increase in total shipments during August, handling 17.9 million tons compared to 16.1 million tons in 2022.

Exports of crude oil totaled 10.2 million tons in August, a 23% y/y increase compared to the same year-ago period.

Petroleum shipments decreased 1% y/y in August to 5.4 million tons, with exports totaling 4.2 million tons during the month.

Dry bulk cargo decreased 20% y/y to 667,653 tons, while chemical cargo volumes totaled 326,125 tons in August, a 16% y/y increase from 2022. 

The Port of Corpus Christi had 475 barge calls in August, a 7.4% y/y decline. Ship calls during August totaled 217, an 8.5% y/y increase compared to 2022. 

The Port of Corpus Christi Ship Channel Improvement Project also recently began its final phase with the Army Corps of Engineers awarding the fourth and final contract to Callan Marine, according to a news release.

The project will increase the depth of the ship channel from 47 to 54 feet and widen it to 530 feet. An additional 400 feet of barge shelves will be built to allow two-way traffic of vessels and barges.

The first phase was completed in February 2020, while Phase 2 wrapped up in July of this year. The third phase is expected to be completed in 2023, with completion of the final phase estimated for early 2025.

The $682 million project is jointly funded by the federal government and Port of Corpus Christi.

Port of New Orleans moves 36,797 TEUs in August

The Port of New Orleans’ container volume totaled 36,797 TEUs in August, while breakbulk tonnage was 119,716.

The port did not provide y/y monthly data, but container traffic fell 18% compared to July 2023; breakbulk cargo jumped 64% compared to last month.

“We saw an increase in breakbulk steel and rubber imports in August,” Kimberly Curth, port spokeswoman, told FreightWaves. 

Containerized cargo included plastic resins and miscellaneous chemicals, and imports of coffee and organic chemicals.

The port handled 8,606 Class I rail car switches in August, a 4% decline from July. The port handles switching operations for six Class I railroads: BNSF, CN, CSX, CPKC, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific.

Watch: A manufacturing supercycle is coming.

Click for more FreightWaves articles by Noi Mahoney.

More articles by Noi Mahoney

Flexe conducts 2nd round of layoffs in 14 months

Former Texas border agent pleads guilty to hiring undocumented truck drivers

Cargo theft from trucks, warehouses spike in Q2