Exports at Port of Longview continued to tumble this year, dragging down overall cargo activity in spite of a dramatic increase in imports, according to a new report released Tuesday.
The volume of goods exported fell 19 percent in the first six months of the year as log and grain markets continued to suffer from the strong U.S. dollar and growing competition from abroad, port officials said.
While soy meal and corn exports improved, wheat and soybean shipments nose-dived and barley exports disappeared.
“Hopefully, EGT (the Export Grain Terminal) will pick up once the Chinese market calms down and we finally figure out how much a Yuan is worth,” Port CEO Geir-Eilif Kalhagen said at Tuesday’s port commission meeting, referring to the Chinese currency.
EGT officials previously said they expect a bump in activity with the fall grain harvest, but the grain terminal isn’t expecting another record year like last year.
Meanwhile, log exports at the port plummeted 49 percent as West Coast logs are edged out by cheaper Russian and New Zealand products.
Kalhagen said these dips in cargo activity were largely expected. “This downtown actually isn’t as bad as we projected,” he added.
In contrast with exports, imports at the port were up 92 percent, boosted by arrivals of calcined coke and metal products. However, exports are a far larger share of port business, accounting for 96 percent of the tonnage across the docks.
Overall operating income, a measure of profit, was down 12 percent, largely because of a 12 percent increase in operating expenses.
