Cargo volumes continue to creep upward, according to a quarterly market snapshot provided by one interisland shipping company.
Young Bros. releases the report four times a year to offer a look at which of the six ports they serve — including two on Hawaii Island — are experiencing growth. Cargo volumes for the first quarter of this year have returned to 2012 levels, officials said Monday. Last year began with a 3.9-percent decline, they said.
President Glenn Hong said he was being “cautious in our interpretation of first quarter results.”
Hilo Harbor recorded the second-highest cargo increase, 8.2 percent from the first quarter 2013.
Roy Catalani, vice president of Strategic Planning and Government Relations, saw a few reasons for Hilo’s growth.
“There has been an increase in biodiesel shipping from Hilo in the first quarter,” Catalani said Monday. “We hadn’t seen that before.”
Another area of growth in Hilo corresponded with the port that recorded the biggest cargo increase. Lanai saw a 41.5 percent growth.
“We saw a lot of landscape plants going from Hilo to Lanai,” Catalani said. “Also, aggregate, mostly cinder. I don’t know specifically where that’s going. There is clearly a renovation and improvements going on.”
Catalani said he saw the annual increase in vehicles being shipped to Hilo. That’s generally the result fleet updates, he said.
Statewide, cargo volume was up 4 percent.
Kawaihae had a mixed report. The west side port experienced just 2.6 percent increase overall, but had the second-highest increase in agricultural cargo, 17.4 percent.
“We saw a rise in cargo across the diverse range of agricultural products, particularly in the area of local beef and taro,” Hong said in a statement. “We also are starting to see more of these types of local products being shipped by smaller scale farmers as demand increases. Other types of produce, plants and aquaculture products also experienced growth in volume.”
Ag cargo increased 4.8 percent statewide compared to the same quarter last year. Maui recorded the only decrease, possibly the result of heavy rains that could have affected crop yield, Young Bros. officials said. Honolulu was up 9.8 percent; Hilo, 2.4 percent; Kauai, 38.5 percent; and Molokai, 10.5 percent. Lanai does not currently export agricultural cargo.
A handful of categories experienced declines in cargo, including food/beverages and food distributors/manufacturers.
Catalani said Young Bros. generally doesn’t try to use the report to forecast growth for the remainder of the year, but he said as tourism arrival numbers level off, the company may see an increase in construction materials being shipped across the state.
“We haven’t seen (that) yet,” he added.
