Strong inbound figures for the Port of Oakland last month

Despite losing a full day of dockside productivity due to a labor dispute, the Port Of Oakland reports that May was its busiest month in nearly four years.

Oakland handled 213,260 cargo containers last month. That was the most since it reported volume of 216,276 containers in August 2011.

The total volume of import, export and empty containers was up 3.8 percent in May from a year ago. It was the third straight month of year-over-year volume increases reported in Oakland.

“We’re seeing steady improvement – especially in import cargo,” said the Port’s Maritime Director, John Driscoll. “Our job now is to accelerate the momentum.”

That is if the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) does not stage another “stop work” action this summer. As reported here on May 31, ILWU Local 34 – one of the more militant factions of the union – refused to dispatch workers for the second shift causing a shutdown of terminal operations.

Loaded import container volume increased 4.5 percent in May from the same period a year ago, port spokesmen said. Shipments of empty containers back to origins in Asia were up 20 percent. The empty repositioning indicates that ports are still rebalancing containers dislocated by wintertime trade slowdowns.

The Port of Oakland is regarded as the main U.S. West Coast ocean cargo gateway for outbound agricultural goods. But May was not a great month for exports. Volume declined 5.6 percent in May. The decrease was attributed to a strong dollar – which makes U.S. exports more expensive. Nevertheless, export volume of 79,890 containers was the most in Oakland since last October.

“The future of U.S. agriculture exports depends on improving our export supply chain,” said Peter Friedmann, executive director of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition (AgTC).  He’s invited Chris Lytle, Oakland’s executive director to address “How West Coast terminals and labor can keep ag exports competitive” at the annual AgTC conference in San Francisco next week.