Atlanta becomes casualty of imports returning to West Coast

Chart of the Week: Outbound Tender Market Share – Atlanta, Ontario SONAR: OTMS.ATL, OTMS.ONT

Atlanta’s percent of total U.S. freight market volume has fallen more than 11% over the past year, according to FreightWaves tender volume data. On the other side of the country, the Ontario, California, market has recovered over 14% of its share of the outbound trucking market. Supply chain shifts and a relatively inexpensive transportation market are driving forces.

Freight takes the path of least and generally cheapest resistance. During the pandemic years of 2020-21, the West Coast port and rail infrastructure was overwhelmed, causing prices to skyrocket and service to deteriorate around the nation’s largest port complexes of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Imports from Asia represent a large percentage of freight volume in the U.S. and most of that entered through the Southern California ports as it is the fastest and cheapest route — until the pandemic.

Importers were forced to find alternative pathways to bring their freight into the U.S. and diverted shipments into Eastern ports with more frequency. Ports like Savannah, Georgia, a feeder for Atlanta market freight demand, exploded.

Many thought much of this volume would stick, but that has somewhat faded. Savannah currently represents approximately 7.44% of domestic maritime import shipments, down from its peak value of 7.9% in 2022 and up slightly from 2019’s 7.3%.

With drought impacting the Panama Canal’s larger Neopanamax locks this fall and the conflict in the Middle East creating problems for ships around the Suez Canal, importers are seeing more reason to resume shipping into the nation’s largest port complex in Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Source: freightwaves.com