Growing Container Volumes for West Coast Ports
ETC International Freight System foresee 13 percent growth by the end of their calendar year in June 2012
Container volumes at West Coast ports increased 7 percent in May compared to May 2011, with imports up 8 percent and exports up 5 percent, according to numbers posted on the Pacific Maritime Association Web site.
Year-to-date, the total container volume at West Coast ports increased 3 percent compared to the first five months of 2011. Imports were up 3 percent, and exports increased 2 percent.
May marked the strongest month of the year so far for imports. Containerized imports increased 11 percent over April, which was the previous high of 2012.
Exports peaked in March, which is traditionally one of the strongest months of the year. However, May was the second strongest month of 2012 for exports.
Airbus will start assembling narrow-body A320 aircraft at its first U.S. plant in Mobile, Ala., in 2016, the European aerospace company confirmed as it ramped up its challenge to arch rival Boeing on its home turf.
Airbus sees the plant, which will cost $600 million and create about 1,000 jobs, playing a key role in boosting its current 20 percent share of the world’s largest single market for narrow-body jets as US carriers prepare to renew their ageing fleets.
While Airbus trails Boeing’s 80 percent share of the U.S. market, it edges out the U.S. plane maker globally with a 53 percent market share.
Airbus estimates U.S. carriers will need 4,600 narrow-body aircraft like its A320 and Boeing’s 737 worth as much $300 billion during the next 20 years.
Mobile will be Airbus’s second assembly plant outside Europe after Tianjin, near Beijing, where it began assembling planes in 2009.
Airbus, a subsidiary of pan-European aerospace company EADS, currently makes 40 narrow-body planes a month, mostly at its European plants in Hamburg, Germany, and Toulouse, southern France.
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