CONTAINER TRAFFIC VOLUME
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
CONTAINER TRAFFIC VOLUME
U.S. International Waterborne Container Trade in Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) (quarterly data, not seasonally adjusted)
International waterborne container traffic, measured in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), helps identify container traffic trends affecting ports and related intermodal freight demand.
The majority of container traffic involves manufactured goods.
Container transportation is very concentrated and competitive. The top 25 U.S. ports handle more than 90 percent of U.S. container traffic.
| U.S. International Container Traffic | Q1 00 | Q1 01 |
|---|---|---|
| Total waterborne TEUs (thousands) | 4,179 | 4,294 |
| U.S. international waterborne container traffic percent change from same quarter previous year | 9.54 | 2.75 |
NOTE: The current value is compared to the value from the same period in the previous year to account for seasonality.
A twenty-foot-equivalent unit (TEU) is the total length of the container divided by 20. A 48-foot container equals 2.4 TEUs.
SOURCE: Journal of Commerce, Port Import/Export Reporting Service (PIERS) data.