The snail-paced recovery in US container trade is evident in the slight month-to-month increases noted by the Port Tracker report for inbound volumes in October and narrowing year-to-year losses over several months.

At the end of the peak season, the predicted month-to-month increase in imports between September and October will be marginal at 0.03 million TEU, according to IHS Global Insight and National Retail Foundation’s report. At 1.17 million TEU inbound volumes forecast for October, traffic will be the same as August’s 1.17 million TEU.

Among the ports surveyed by Port Tracker, with the exception of Tacoma, there is an expected upsurge in month-to-month imports. Tacoma will remain bereft of any gain as inbound volumes are forecast to fall 18 per cent. Tacoma will handle 39,744 TEU this month compared to 48,522 TEU handled last month according to the Port Tracker. Tacoma port authorities say September’s full imports stood at 53,251 TEU.

Volume decline at Tacoma could partly be attributed to Maersk’s shift from Tacoma’s APM terminal to Seattle. Local port management heads are also rolling with Japan’s NYK deciding to abandon its plan to building a dedicated terminal, citing “ downturn in trade” as the reason.

Tacoma executive director Timothy Farrell has been induced to resign by year-end. He has been blamed for the failure of NYK project, which led the port authorities to spend US$190 million on land, engineering, environmental remediation and construction. Overall cost of the project is reported to have gone up from $800 million to $1.2 billion.

The port however gets a breather with NYK deciding to operate from Tacoma’s APM Terminal, after its contract with the Port of Seattle expires in 2012.

Moreover, with NYK’s Grand Alliance partners, OOCL and Hapag Lloyd reported to be mulling a shift to Tacoma, the battered Tacoma may yet even the score with Seattle’s for wooing away Maersk.

NYK, which accounts for 7.7 per cent of Seattle volume, brought in 132,000 TEU to the port in 2008 along with 80,000 TEU from OOCL and Hapag-Lloyd according to figures quoted by the American Shipper. The three Grand Alliance members together make up for 11.7 per cent of Seattle throughput.

Seattle is expected to handle 61,010 TEU of imports in October against the 58,843 TEU lifted last month according to Port Tracker estimates. The port’s overall volumes registered a second consecutive month of year-on-year increases to 141,892 TEU in September, said American Shipper.