In his monthly report at the April 26 Port Commission meeting, Port of Houston Authority Chief Executive Officer Alec G. Dreyer said March was strong in all commodity categories, calling it the best month since he joined the Port Authority in September 2009.

"Ship arrivals at our container facilities were up a strong 22 percent for the month, regaining what was lost in February due to the short month and fog-related impacts," he said.

Twenty-foot-equivalent unit (TEU) volumes and container tonnage were both up 16 percent for the month, Dreyer noted. Year-to-date, TEUs are up 6 percent and tonnage is up 7 percent.



"Steel also had an excellent month in March, with tonnage up 112 percent or 192,000 tons to a monthly total of 363,000 tons," he said. "Year-to-date, steel is at 863,000 tons — ahead of last year by nearly 400,000 tons. "Container volumes for April also look very strong through the first three weeks of this month," he said. "We had two 8,000-TEU ship arrivals— the largest container ships that have ever come into the Gulf (of Mexico)."