b'18American Journal ofTransportation ajot.com(SURGEcontinued frompartners at the Port of LongNotes to the AJOTs Top 100 Importers chart page 14) Beach,wehavemadeSan likely to be prolonged reduc- Pedro Bay the countrys big- for 2023tions in vessel transits at thegest gatewaynearly double SuezCanal,becauseofthethesizeofthenextlargest dangerofshippingthroughport complex. By George Lauriat, AJOTthe Red SeaSo, Ithink were going to see a shift backp rOjeCtiOnS FOrg rOwth TheAJOTsTop100ImporterschartTEUs in imports over a decade ago and our toutilization(of)U.S.Westatp Ort OFO aklanD featured annually for over two decades in thefigures only show just under 94,889 TEUs. Coast portsand VancouverOConnellsaysthattheTop North American Importers and Export- Anumberoftheothernamemega-retailers (Canada) to satisfy the importCityofOaklandsattempters edition highlights the largest importersand online-retailers have similar under report-needs of North America. to build a baseball park andintermsofTEUs(Twenty-foot-equivalenting of their overall imports. In this years data He said both canals arecondominiums at the Port ofunits). This data reflects ocean imports fromTargetdoesntevenmakethelist,although likelytoexperiencepro- OaklandsHowardTerminalbills of ladings (BLs) and for statistical pur- throughunofficialincidentaldatawecan longedreductionsofsail- site was a disruptive factor onposes averages this tally out into TEUs. Formakeestimatesthatputthemega-retaileris ings:Idontthinkeitherthe Port and on Port custom- thisreason,thetotalsdonotexactlyalignprobably over 200,000 TEUs. And Amazon, one of those is going to goers. With the decision by thewith TEU totals reported by U.S. port authori- which led the ranking for the last two years awaysoonunlesssuddenlyOakland As to abandon Oak- ties. Equally, all boxes (TEUs) arent createdposted Amazon posted a meager 21,773 TEUs there are torrential rains land in favor of a Las Vegasequal as the dollar value of one item such asin 2022 but similar to WalMart s case, likely in Central America. The ballpark,thePortofOak- electronics can be vastly larger than say paper(NOTEScontinued on page 23)Panamanianshaveaplanland has an opportunity for aproducts. Also, some freight cubes out and toexpandwatercapacityresurgence.other freight weigh out as the density of the thatwilltakeseveralyearsThe surge in import vol- items varies enormously. The chart reflects, asD iSClaimerto work through. And at theumes on the West Coast willthe name implies, only imports for two rea- Descartes-Datamynedataprovides12 sametime,thesituationbenefit the Ports of Los Ange- sons: the first is that imports vastly out pacemonths of aggregated statistics on the waterborne in the Red Sea is extraordi- les and Long Beach but willexports and thus are of principle interest; andtrading activity of US importers in the US.narily volatile. also benefit Oakland, Seattle- secondly the accuracy of export data for manyForcompaniesthathavemultipleloca-AsareflectionofthisTacoma,andtheCanadianreasons, isnt as well-defined as import data.tions or units engaged in trade, trade statistics trend,PortofLosAngelesport of Vancouver, he says. Asinpastyears,theinformationintheare aggregated by individual location or unit, ExecutiveDirectorEugeneThePortofOaklandAJOTs Top 100 Importers chart was derived fromand then totaled at the company headquarters Seroka reported in his StateshouldbenefitbecausetheDescartes-Datamynesexcellentsystem(www. level, as identified by D&B, or by Descartes-ofthePortofLos Angelesprojectedsurgeinimportsdatamyne.com).ThedatawasassembledwithDatamyne if D&B data is not available.address on January 10th thatcould open up the possibilitycare, but as a caveat, all information is wroughtDescartes-Datamyne data does NOT include the Ports of Los Angeles andforcarriersandshipperstowith so many variables that the final result shouldinformationonshipmentsforwhichthecon-LongBeachincreasedtheirseekOaklandasanalterna- be viewed with prudence. [See Disclaimer] signeeisNOTidentified.Generally,theseare national market share by 3%tive [to] possible congestionIt also is worth keeping in mind that U.S.shipments handled by an intermediary such as an in 2023: We were pleased toatthePortofLosAngelesimporters frequently use third parties for theNVOCC or other third-party service provider.see a 3% bump in our WestandLongBeach:Itseemsentry of goods thus the numbers in the chartsNote, too, that companies may not be identi-Coast market share comparedto me the Port (Oakland) is inarelargelythosewhichappearunderthefied in shipment records because they are exercis-to East and Gulf Coast ports.(SURGEcontinued onimportersownnameorsourcingcompany.ing their legal right to restrict the public release of Workingtogetherwithourpage 20) Forexample,WalMartexceededamillioninformation about their trading activities.most productive portin North AmericaCONTAINER PORT PERFORMANCE INDEXkeeping supply chains and economies in drive.Welcome to done.Moving fast. And going the extra mile. Thats what drives us. At NC Ports, we provide technology that makes on-port navigation smoother and personalized service that helps you breathe easier. We do a lot more than move fast. Because more is what moves you. 800.213.4430 // NCPorts.com'