Port Houston is No. 1 in tonnage and Texas is No. 1 for overall waterborne
commerce.
If you’re looking for business intelligence about waterborne cargo, there’s no
better place than the Waterborne Commerce Statistics Center operated by the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers’ Institute for Water Resources, which just released its
annual tonnage report for 2022. Here are the top 10 ports
by number of short tons of cargo:
RANK
PORT_NAME
TOTAL
1
Houston Port Authority, TX
293,833,530
2
South Louisiana, LA, Port of
226,188,142
3
Corpus Christi, TX
174,327,410
4
New York, NY & NJ
141,290,423
5
Port of Long Beach, CA
92,958,926
6
New Orleans, LA
83,254,102
7
Beaumont, TX
74,342,746
8
Port of Greater Baton Rouge, LA
73,371,577
9
Virginia, VA, Port of
69,433,624
10
Lake Charles Harbor District, LA
64,107,156
No. 1 Port Houston reported two weeks ago that container volumes shot up by 15%
during the first quarter of this year compared to Q1 2023, to 1,069,917
twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). March was the port’s biggest March ever at
360,991 TEUs. The port reported that appliances and furniture led rising import
volumes while resins led loaded export volumes.
Consumer spending on items like furniture and appliances contributed to loaded
import volumes that were up 23% this March compared to the same month last year
and 14% year-to-date. Loaded export volumes, which are primarily resins, have
also increased by 12% in March and 15% for the year, totaling 404,124 TEUs
year-to-date. Total tonnage across all of Port Houston’s terminals is up 4%
through March, totaling 13,422,452 tons year-to-date.
“The improvements we continue to make at our facilities, combined with a
committed workforce, have allowed us to efficiently handle the double-digit
growth in both imports and exports during the first quarter,” said Roger
Guenther, executive Director at Port Houston.
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After No. 1 Houston, four Louisiana ports make the list, with the Port of Lake
Charles just beating out the Port of Los Angeles for the No. 10 spot. Site
Selection over the years has published a number of its branded Investment
Profiles about the area, including “Welcome to America’s Power Plant” in the March 2024 issue,
“Better and Stronger Than Before” in March 2021 and “Diversity Drives Region” in March 2009.
The Port of Lake Charles (Lake Charles Harbor and Terminal District) handled 64.2
million short tons of cargo in 2022, a 32.7% increase over the previous year at
the 203-square mile district. It’s in the heart of the No. 1 LNG export area in
the world. A 2021 study found marine cargo along the Calcasieu Ship Channel
supports $39 billion of total economic value to the U.S. economy, with $29.9
billion in Louisiana and $12 billion in Calcasieu and Cameron parishes.
Among the tabs in the Waterborne Commerce spreadsheet is one listing top states
by overall waterborne commerce, ranked by 1,000s of tons:
Total U.S. waterborne tonnage for 2022 came to more than 2.3 trillion tons. — Adam Bruns
Ground was broken last week for the final phase of harbor deepening and for beach nourishment in Norfolk, Virginia, in the Hampton Roads region that is home to No. 9-ranked Port of Virginia.
Photo by Ana Allen courtesy of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Institute for Water Resources
