"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)."