New Transportation market report from Business Monitor International: "United States Shipping Report Q1 2014"

Boston, MA -- (SBWire) -- 01/29/2014 --BMI maintains its cautiously optimistic view on the US shipping sector. After estimated contractions in TEU throughput at both the port of Los Angeles and the Port of New York/New Jersey in 2013, we forecast a return to growth in 2014 at both facilities.

We continue to believe that the US consumer is slowly - and sometimes unsteadily - gaining momentum after several years of weak activity, providing a welcome boost to container volumes at US ports. A steady improvement in consumer confidence during the first nine months of 2013 also reinforces our view that private consumption will accelerate in 2014. As confidence improves, we expect consumers to be relatively more willing to spend on big-ticket items and shift relatively more income away from savings and toward spending.

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Our 2014 growth forecast of 2.7% represents a bounce from 2013, and we believe that the risks to economic expansion remain predominantly to the upside. Our core view on the US economy is that the recovery is becoming increasingly entrenched, and that by 2014 many of the headwinds to growth, including government spending cuts, will be dissipating. Not only do we expect accelerating growth in 2014, we believe the US economy could be on the cusp of a multi-year period of stronger growth.

Key Industry Data

- At the port of Los Angeles (LA) we forecast 4.6% growth year-on-year (y-o-y) in total tonnage in 2014, to reach 72.7mn tonnes.
- At the East Coast port of New York/New Jersey (NY/NJ), growth is forecast to be 3.1% y-o-y in 2014, to reach 147.8mn tonnes.
- We expect LA to record growth of 4.2% in twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) throughput in 2014, falling to 7.9mn TEUs.
- We expect NY/NJ to record a contraction of 4.8% in TEU throughput in 2014, to reach 5.6mn TEUs.

Key Industry Trends

Charleston Recovery And Growth On Course

We believe that the recent announcement concerning the Port of Charleston's substantial growth in container throughput bears out our forecast for a 3% increase in 2013. We view this as an early verification of the future success of the port's strategic focus on volume growth and expanding its deep water facilities to attract larger vessels following the completion of the Panama Canal project.

Port Authority Sanctions US$105mn For Port Newark-Elizabeth Complex

A sum of US$105mn has been assigned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to design, build and realign roadways in the Port Newark-Elizabeth complex in New Jersey, US. The Port Street Corridor Improvements Project at the north end of the port comprises work on the Port, Corbin, Marlin and Kellogg streets and Doremus Avenue as well as related intersections.

Florida Ports Look To Panama

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