The number of foreign trade containers handled by the Port of Osaka in western Japan rose 3.5 percent in 2013 from a year earlier to a record high of 2.194 million 20-foot-equivalent units (TEUs), according to preliminary figures released by the Osaka municipal government.
The 2013 number was 21,000 higher than the previous annual record of 2.173 million TEUs set in 2011.
In 2013, 983,000 TEUs of containers were exported, up 4.3 percent from a year earlier, and 1.211 million TEUs of containers were imported, up 2.8 percent year-on-year.
Container numbers in trade with individual countries were not given.
The Port of Osaka is one of Japan’s five largest container ports, along with the Port of Tokyo, the Port of Yokohama, the Port of Nagoya and the Port of Kobe.
Including container trade within Japan, the Port of Osaka handled a total of 2.485 million TEUs in 2013, up 3.1 percent from 2012.
In terms of volume, the Port of Osaka handled 32.235 million tons of container cargo in foreign trade in 2013, up 3.8 percent from a year earlier. Exports totaled 7.222 million tons, up 6.0 percent, while imports amounted to 25.013 million tons, up 3.2 percent.
In 2013, the Port of Osaka’s container cargo exports to the United States increased 1.1 percent from a year earlier to 90,102 tons, while its container cargo imports from the U.S. tumbled 9.0 percent year-on-year to 459,097 tons.
In 2013, the U.S. was the Port of Osaka’s 10th-largest container export market and the Japanese port’s eighth-biggest source of container imports.
The Journal of Commerce