The Maritime Exchange for the Delaware River and Bay today announced the tristate port vessel arrival statistics for 2016. “Continuing the upward trend over the last few years, December’s activity finished strong to close out the year on a high note,” said Maritime Exchange President Dennis Rochford. According to Maritime Exchange records, 2,427 ships arrived at Delaware River port facilities in 2016. This compares to 2,242 arrivals in 2015, an 8.3% increase in vessel calls throughout the region.  On the import side, fruit ships saw the largest growth, increasing from 490 ships in 2015 to 577 in 2016, a 17.7% gain. At 474 arrivals in 2016, petroleum imports grew by 15.6% compared to the 410 ships the previous year. Containerized cargo rounded out the top Delaware River imports, with 431 ships offloading containers in 2016, compared to 381 in 2015, an increase of 13.1%. “This is partly driven by a busy holiday shopping season,” Rochford said, “but all this activity also points to a stronger economy in general.” While Delaware River ports have historically skewed strongly toward imports, the region also exported more maritime cargo in 2016 than in 2015. Vehicle exports jumped by 108%, ships carrying outbound petroleum grew by 81%, and outbound steel ships increased by 75% during the period. Exports in the natural gas liquid segment remain strong, most notably ships carrying ethane from the Marcellus Shale. In 2015, only 6 ships moved export ethane, and that number jumped to 34 in 2016.  The number of ship arrivals in 2016 brings the total near the level of 2008 (2,473). “Overall ship activity decreased each year between 2009 and 2012,” Rochford said. “It was only in 2013 that we began to see an upward trend, and we’re now approaching pre-recession levels. This is very positive news not only for our port, but for the region as a whole.”