Comparing our Current Statistics with Historical Metrics
By Jock O’Connell
Fifty years ago, the TEU was not the preeminent metric used to measure container trade. In the U.S. Maritime Administration’s report, “Containerized Cargo Statistics, Calendar Year 1974”, containerized trade was still chiefly measured in long tons (2,240 pounds), mainly because the TEU metric had not yet been defined. Although the 1974 report did provide statistics on the numbers of containers involved in the country’s foreign maritime trade, it was obliged to remind readers that those numbers represented “mixed units of standard and non-standard size containers”. (The first official forms requiring information about loaded and empty containers measuring 8x8x20 feet were introduced on January 1, 1978.) Up to then and for some years after, containers came in a variety of sizes, which made shipping more convenient for some but a logistical headache for others.
A half-century ago, America’s containerized maritime trade was growing. But, by today’s standards, the volumes were miniscule. As the Maritime Administration’s 1974 report observed, the nation’s containerized import trade that year amounted to 10.2 million long tons, while containerized exports totaled 10.6 million long tons.
That’s right. Once upon a time, we exported slightly more than we imported, at least when measured by weight.
Readers may be forgiven for having no conception of what either 10.2 million or 10.6 million long tons really amounts to. So let’s put it this way, today each month sees an average of 15.6 million long tons of containerized imports enter U.S. ports, while each month’s containerized export trade averages slightly less than 8.8 million long tons.
For the record, here were the Top Ten U.S. Ports fifty years ago as measured in thousands of long tons of containerized cargo.
Top Ten U.S. Container Ports in 1974 Measured in Thousands of Long Tons
| Port | Long Tons |
|---|---|
| New York | 8,038 |
| Los Angeles | 2,262 |
| Norfolk | 1,878 |
| Baltimore | 1,584 |
| Oakland | 1,290 |
| Seattle | 1,114 |
| San Francisco | 1,001 |
| Long Beach | 951 |
| Charleston | 615 |
| Philadelphia | 613 |
Source: U.S. Maritime Administration