Port Authority Handled Record Amount of Shipping Cargo in 2011
February 19, 2012, 11:18 PM ESTBy Freeman Klopott
Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey handled a record amount of cargo last year, beating the previous mark set in 2007, before the start of the economic downturn, the agency said.
The third-busiest U.S. port processed 5.5 million 20-foot equivalent units of container cargo in 2011, an almost 4 percent increase over the prior year, the agency said in a statement today. The authority’s on-dock rail system, ExpressRail, also set a record, handling 422,144 containers, or 12 percent more than in 2010.
“The investments we made in the port’s infrastructure have paid dividends,” Executive Director Pat Foye said in the statement. “We will continue to demonstrate that our port is open for business and prepared to handle increasing volumes of cargo from around the world.”
The authority oversees the region’s three major airports; marine terminals and seaports; the PATH commuter rail line; six tunnels and bridges between New York and New Jersey; the Port Authority Bus Terminal; and the World Trade Center.
California’s Los Angeles and Long Beach ports are the busiest in the U.S.
--Editors: Mark Schoifet, Pete Young
To contact the reporter on this story: Freeman Klopott in Albany, New York at fklopott@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net
