Top 30 U.S. Ports 2019: Trade tensions determine where cargo goes next

By Patrick Burnson, Executive Editor · May 10, 2019
International trade tensions, notwithstanding, the U.S. coastal port sector created 2.2 million jobs last year as marine cargo activity generated about $5.4 trillion of total economic activity.

According to the recently released report “2018 National Economic Impact of the U.S. Coastal Port System,” underlying trends suggest that logistics managers will continue to rely on a diverse mix of ocean cargo gateways in the future.

Martin Associates, a consultancy working with the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA), notes in the report that, over the past five years, Federal, state and local tax revenues generated by port-sector and importer/exporter revenues rose nearly 18% from $321.1 billion to $378.1 billion, while personal wages and local consumption related to the port-sector increased from $1.1 trillion to $1.4 trillion. Furthermore, the average annual salary of those directly employed by port-related businesses jumped from $53,723 to $62,800—a 17% increase.

John Martin, president and founder of the Lancaster, Pa.-based firm, presented the report at last month’s AAPA 2019 Spring Conference in Washington, D.C. “The sizable growth over the past five years in the number of jobs that American deep-draft ports support, the wages those jobs pay, and the tax revenues that are collected from the cargo activities at these ports is really quite impressive,” he says.

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