Norfolk lags, LA-Long Beach lead in Jul, news by Hebei Longsheng Metals
| U.S. seaports are still feeling the after effects of COVID-19 with inbound shipments that fell by 3.7% year over year in July. That was nonetheless the slowest rate of decline since January and included the fastest sequential increase for July versus June since at least 2007. Among the major ports Los Angeles and Long Beach did best with a 2.6% year over year increase in import volumes while Norfolk and New Orleans did the worst with declines of 16.1% and 17.1% respectively. Norfolk’s decline followed a worse-than-average drop of 20.3% in Q2. The port appears to have been particularly hard hit by the container-lines cancelling services (known as blank sailings) as they sought to offset the COVID-19 driven drop in global trade. Imports to Norfolk handled by Hapag-Lloyd and ONE dropped by 38.4% year over year in July after a 25.9% slide in Q2. The 2M Alliance of Maersk and MSC meanwhile cut volumes in July by a more modest 9.2% compared to a year earlier. By Hebei Longsheng Metals & Minerals Co,. Ltd. |
