The investments in Port Houston’s channel are beginning to provide results, as with the completion of the widening and deepening of its Bayport Channel and work on the Bayport flare, Port Houston saw growth in the size of ships calling its container facilities.
Namely, Port Houston will receive its largest container ship to date, a 9,500 TEU vessel Port Commission Chairman of the Port of Houston Authority Janiece Longoria announced.
[smlsubform prepend=”GET THE SAFETY4SEA IN YOUR INBOX!” showname=false emailtxt=”” emailholder=”Enter your email address” showsubmit=true submittxt=”Submit” jsthanks=false thankyou=”Thank you for subscribing to our mailing list”]
In addition, during July the port recorded the largest number of container lifts on one vessel in its history at 4,800 lifts. That record has since been beaten twice, the latest being earlier this month when more than 5,700 container moves were handled on one of the port’s East Asian services.
Moreover, the agenda by the Port Commission committed to further investment to meet the port’s growing demand. They accepted a request for proposals to redevelop container yards at Barbours Cut Container Terminal; a recommendation to award the planning and design of the next phase of terminal development at Bayport; and a recommendation to construct the rail spur into the Bayport container facility.
During August the Port delivered strong results. Overall tonnage for the year reached almost 28 million tons, reflecting an 8% increase over last year. Steel tonnage remained steady, with a growth of 29% for the year. August container volume remained solid, while year-to-date activity is strong with a port-wide increase of 11% overall in TEU. Loaded container units increased by 10% compared to last year.