This past year loaded shipping container volume reached an all-time high at the Port of Oakland, CA.
The port reported a 7.6 percent increase handling the equivalent of 1.83 million loaded 20-foot containers last year — which beat the previous record of 1.82 million 20-footers in 2013.
The port attributed the milestone to a year-long containerized export boom, as well as growth in imports. It noted the record is important since loaded container volume is a key measure used to calculate fees paid by Oakland’s marine terminal tenants. Increased volume means the port gained business in 2016, even though it consolidated five terminals into four.
“This is a gratifying outcome,” Port of Oakland Maritime Director John Driscoll said in a press release.
Port officials said total 2016 volume — full and empty containers — equaled 2.37 million 20-foot containers, up 4 percent from 2015.
Containerized export volume jumped 10.5 percent in 2016. In December, exports were up 13.5 percent — the fourth straight month of double-digit export growth.
Oakland import volume increased 4.7 percent last year, while December imports were up 6.1 percent.
Exports accounted for 52 percent of Oakland’s loaded container volume in 2016.
Port of Oakland History
Originally, the enclosed coaster body of water, 500 feet wide, had a depth of two feet at mean low tide. In 1852, the year of Oakland‘s incorporation as a town by the California State Legislature, large shipping wharves were constructed along the Oakland Estuary, which was dredged to create a viable shipping channel. 22 years later, in 1874, the previously dredged shipping channel was deepened to make Oakland a deep water port.
In the late 19th century, the Southern Pacific was granted exclusive rights to the port, a decision the city soon came to regret. In January 1906, a small work party in the employ of the Western Pacific Railroad, which had just begun construction, hastily threw a crossing over the SP line to connect the WP mainline with trackage built on an area of landfill. This act, protested by the SP and later held up in court, broke the railroad’s grip on the port area. The courts ruled that all landfill since the date of the agreement did not belong to the SP. This ruling ended SP control and made the modern Port of Oakland possible.