Port Of New Orleans Hits 14-Year High

Cargo worked at the Port of New Orleans’s in 2014 totaled 8.4 million tons, the highest total since 2000 and up 28 percent compared to the prior 12-month period. Imported steel and container cargo led the growth, as imported iron and steel rose 102 percent in the 12-month-period to 3.5 million tons. Overall breakbulk tons totaled 3.8 million tons, up 52 percent and container tons topped 4.6 million tons, up 14 percent compared to the prior year.

New shippers such as Chiquita, which returned to the Port after a 40-year hiatus, and project cargo generated by the growing chemical industry, will bolster cargo figures in the future, according to Port President & CEO Gary LaGrange.

These cargo figures come on the heels of record cruise growth, as the Port topped 1 million passenger embarkations and disembarkations for the first time and an all-time container mark of 490,526 twenty-foot-equivalent units in 2014 and a projection of well over 500,000 TEUs for 2015. You can read more about the record trade growth in GNO here.