Port of Hueneme container business is up 51% and revenues rise 28% In 2022

The California Port of Hueneme reported a 28% increase in revenue and a 51% jump in loaded and empty volume in 2022, according to Kristin Decas, executive director, Port of Hueneme.

Decas told AJOT that the loaded container business saw an even greater jump of 90% in Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 based on loaded moves of 168,526 twenty-foot unit containers (TEUs) up from 88,514 TEUs in Fiscal Year 2021.

The total empty and loaded container volume for FY 2022 was 207,695 TEUs up from 137, 344 TEUs in FY 2021.

Decas said that the business for “speed to market encouraged two new entrants to the Port: Fed Ex and J.B. Hunt.”

Fed Ex chartered general cargo ships and has been bringing in 200-300 fifty-three-foot containers every two weeks. The cargoes compose dry goods and include toilet paper and shoes.

Logistics company J.B. Hunt has been transporting empty fifty-three-foot containers and also operates on a sailing every two weeks basis.

Decas says she is “optimistic that the speed to market service of 25 days transit time from China to Port of Hueneme will encourage both carriers (Fed Ex and J.B. Hunt) to maintain their services, especially since we don’t have the congestion problems you have at LA, Long Beach and Oakland. I describe their services as taxis competing with more traditional container ship services which operate as buses.”

Mobile Cranes

The new business means that the Port now utilizes 5 mobile harbor cranes. A new $8 million project will provide electrification connections so that the cranes can be powered by electricity rather than diesel.

The Port’s two stevedores are Ceres Terminals and Port America.

In the meantime, the Port has three regularly scheduled container services arriving on a weekly basis and provided by: Delmonte, Chiquita and Sealand.

The Port reported 2.1 M revenue tons in Fiscal Year 2022. The composition of commodities by tonnage was bananas with 30%; followed by fresh fruit at 21% and miscellaneous products also at 21%; followed by autos at 15%; fertilizer at 7%; high and heavy 6%.

Altogether Port of Hueneme revenues were up by 28% with full containers up 90%, high and heavy shipments up 78% but auto shipments down by 12%. The sources of revenue derived 50% from fresh fruit and 50% from auto and high and heavy products.

Decas said she believes the decline in auto shipments is temporary and due to global semiconductor shortages, which are being addressed by an increase of semiconductor shipments.

The 78% improvement in high and heavy shipments has partly mitigated the downturn in autos, she said, with the Port reporting 4-9 roll on/roll off ship sailings per week.

Exports from the Port were up by 126% in Fiscal Year 2022 compared to 2021. The top exports were clothing accessories; potatoes; tool parts, prepared and frozen potatoes; fresh apples and pears.