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Portland Boxes Off 4% by Bill DiBenedetto Journal of Commerce, December 22, 2008

The Port of Portland's sluggish year continued in November, with container volume down 4.1 percent on-year to 18,858 TEUs, and 11.6 percent from the same month in 2007.

The month was marginally better than its year-to-date total; over the 11-month period box traffic declined 5.7 percent at the Columbia River port to 227,252 TEUS, compared to the same span in 2007.

Portland's export containers have surpassed import volume all year, though the overall totals have declined in each category. Outbound container traffic through November was down 7.8 percent to 127,896 TEUs, while import boxes fell 2.7 percent to 99,356 TEUs.

Grain volume increased 3.8 percent to 4.12 million tons and mineral bulk tonnage increased 1.4 percent to 5.13 million tons. Breakbulk volume through November declined 5.8 percent to 977,233 tons, and auto shipments fell 7.4 percent to 381,590 tons.