According to American Shipper, the Eastern and Gulf Coast ports will see a traffic surge in the coming months. The number of Asia-East Coast services per month rose to 28 in March, with an expected 30 in May. Deployed capacity of services is projected to reach 889,000 twenty-foot equivalent units in the month of June, up 40% from the 2021 average, and 56% from 2020.
“The shift from West Coast to East Coast ports can be attributed to congestion in said West Coast ports”, says the McCown Report. Shippers have elected to change routing directions in favor of East/Gulf ports due to their proximity to a good majority of the US population as well. The calculated three-month trailing average of year-on-year volume changes shows that East/Gulf ports were growing faster than West Coast ports even before the pandemic, and that congestion in the western ports has only accelerated East Coast traffic.
