Year-to-date, the port has handled 1,721,417 TEU vs. 1,599,784 TEUs handled during the same period last year, an increase of 7.6 percent.
“October was our ninth consecutive month of growth and it would have been greater had we not had some cargo diverted to the West Coast as a result of the strike that was scheduled to begin at the beginning of October, and we had some vessel calls at the end of the month that were pushed into November as a result of Hurricane Sandy,” said Rodney W. Oliver, the Virginia Port Authority’s interim executive director. “Had we not had those disruptions, our volumes would have been even better; we’ll recapture that cargo and see it reflected in the November totals.”
Total rail containers handled in October were 33,031, which is an 8.2 percent increase when compared with last October. The year-to-date rail containers total is 314,050 vs. 274,777, respectively, for the same period last year; an increase of 14.3 percent.
The number of containers moved between the Port of Richmond and the Hampton Roads Harbor on the 64 Express barge service in October was 206, a decrease of 12 percent when compared with the same month last year. The reduction in barge traffic is normal at this time of year as a large user of that service begins annual maintenance and repair work on its production line and reduces its output, Oliver said.