US Gulf Coast ports are forecasting another strong breakbulk growth in 2022 due to recovering steel, reports Barn Media.
"I look outside my office on the fourth floor, and all I can see is breakbulk ships stacked with containers at our general cargo terminal," said Port of Houston executive director Roger Guenther.
"This is the first time in my 31-year history here that every berth has been occupied."
Shippers and ocean carriers are desperate for alternatives to congestion containerised supply chains since late 2020, with a shift of their containerised freight onto multipurpose bulk cargo ships.
Non-container ships brought 35,130 TEU into the Port of Houston in 2021, a 250.4 per cent increase from 2020.
The spillover surge is not limited to boxes moving on non-container ships, however.
During the second half of 2021, Houston saw an increase in steel and other breakbulk imports.
"Steel imports are back again after oil-and-gas drilling went away in 2020," said Mr Guenther.
"It's a big part of what we handle across our docks today because of the revival of the oil industry drilling business."
Total breakbulk steel imports and exports through Houston rose 50 per cent year over year to three million metric tonnes (mt) in 2021.
Volumes of non-containerised general cargo surged 131 per cent to 1.1 million mt for the year.
In the first two months of 2022, steel volumes leaped 177 per cent to 845,496 mt, and general cargo throughput rose 117 per cent to 327,494 mt.
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