Port of Virginia container volumes fall

Nelson InternationalBusiness

Due to extreme weather issued this winter, the Port of Virginia has seen container volumes fall slightly. An unusual issue for a port that is celebrating record setting trends and numbers year after year, the beginning of the calendar year always seem to cause issues in numbers. Savage winter weather caused the loss of two full days of work in January (along with standard drops post-holiday) and the shorter month of February wasn’t enough to bounce back, numbers show. Port of Virginia is still up 3.8% at almost 1.9 million TEUs for the current fiscal year.

According to the most recent port data:

  • Handled 218,729 TEUs a decrease of 0.7% year-over year
  • Inbound empty container volumes fell 70.8 percent to 2,099 TEUs for the month
  • Outbound empty container volumes rose 12.2 percent to 34,156 TEUs
  • Volumes handled by the Virginia Inland Port (VIP) and Richmond Marine Terminal (RMT) were up 4% to 2,885 containers and 45% to 2,541 TEUs, respectively

As of March 1st, the port is rolling out the new Truck Reservation System, PROPASS which will start at the Norfolk International Terminal and move on to the Virginia International Gateway over the summer as they work to accommodate more trucks in less time. Now, trucks looking for port calls between 5AM and 7AM will need to have an appointment as more service hours are added to work with the huge increase in port volumes and ELD delays that keep trucks from making full day turns due to hourly restrictions on drivers.

According to John Reinhart, CEO of the Virginia Port Authority, “January featured two snowstorms, which had an impact on our performance, yet we continue to perform in-line with our fiscal-year volume forecast. We are expecting volumes to increase as we move into spring and summer, so we are focusing consistent delivery of service and managing the growth and construction at Virginia International Gateway (VIG) and Norfolk International Terminals (NIT).We anticipated the challenges, and on a monthly basis starting in April, we are bringing new capacity on line that will help to alleviate the situation,” he added.