■ Port of Virginia sees drop in cargo traffic: Breakout led to a significant slowdown in manufacturing in China.
The Port of Virginia saw close to a double-digit drop in cargo last month that officials are attributing in part to the ripple effects of the coronavirus on the global shipping industry.
A total of 207,816 containers, measured in 20-foot increments, were handled at the port last month. That was a 9% drop from the 228,151 containers in February 2019, port officials said in a news release, attributing the decrease to the spread of the virus and the ongoing trade tariffs.
In January, the port saw a 5.4% drop from January 2019. Most of that drop can be attributed to the U.S.-China trade war, port spokesman Joe Harris said, although the port at that time was beginning to hear that China would have to pull back on manufacturing to control the spread of the coronavirus.
The beginning of February is around the Chinese New Year, a traditionally slow time for trade.
“Several things have layered on,” Harris said. “You’re well into a year of volumes being affected by outside forces.” A previous port estimate predicted that volume losses due to the virus in February, March and April will total 44,000 import containers.
The novel coronavirus breakout in China led to a significant slowdown in manufacturing there, which has hampered the shipping industry.
Other ports along the East Coast are bracing for a slow spring and are watching closely to see when the virus will be contained and work begins to ramp back up.
In Virginia, the port earlier this month temporarily suspended all work-related international travel and domestic air travel, according to Harris.