January continued the relatively strong performance of December across all sectors of Port Authority business, CEO Alec G. Dreyer reported at the February 22 Port Commission of the Port of Houston Authority meeting.

Ship arrivals at the container facilities and in the Turning Basin were essentially flat, comparing January of this year to last year, and barge traffic was up 30 percent for the first month of the year. But TEU volumes were up 5 percent, unit counts were up 4 percent and container tonnage was up 7 percent.

“Put simply, we had the same number of ships arriving between years, but each ship was moving substantially more cargo,” he said.

Steel started the year well with 243,000 tons as compared to 154,000 tons in January 2010: a 58 percent increase. Dreyer said other commodities also showed nice gains for the month, with an overall increase in general cargo of more than 21 percent.

Container revenue was up 8 percent, reflecting the growth in TEUs for the month. Turning Basin revenue was up 24 percent in January, due primarily to the amount of steel handled this year over last.