The Port of Houston announced that several records were broken in 2018, including that total tonnage at its that set a record of 35.7 million tons. This reflected an increase of 9% percent from 2017. Moreover, container twenty-foot equivalent units increased 10% to 2.7 million, which is a new record.
According to Port Houston’s Executive Director Roger Guenther, the increased activity has led to a balance of imports to exports for the year of 50/50 import to export. In addition, steel tonnage recorded 4.4 million tons, a growth of 21% from 2017.
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Furthermore, the strength of cargo activity helped operating revenues increase to $366 million for the year, breaking the previous record set in 2017 of $333 million.
Port Houston continues to lead the nation in market share of waterborne exports of the general resin category which includes Polypropylene, PVC and Polyethylene resins. In 2018, Port Houston container terminals processed 2.4 million gate moves and notably, accomplished 9,400 gate transactions in one day, setting another record
Continuing, Mr. Guenther added that 2018 was the ‘year of the cranes’ as the port bought more to keep up with the momentum. In fact, during August the port received three ship-to-shore cranes at Bayport Wharf #2, as well as five of 10 rubber-tired gantry cranes on order.
In 2018, the port also awarded a contract to Konecranes to purchase ten diesel electric container yard cranes for Barbours Cut Container terminal. These cranes aim to make it capable to better handle the rising demand of larger ships.