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Port Handled More Freight in January by Staff Portland Business Journal, February 23, 2010

The Port of Portland's marine terminals started 2010 with a nearly 11 percent increase in freight totals.

The port handled 1,088,753 tons of freight in January, a 10.5 percent boost from the previous January, and a continuation of a late-year surge that brought 1 million-plus tons of freight into the port for the final two months of 2009.

The boost in freight tons came despite a nearly 19 percent drop in the number of vessels calling the port -- from 54 last year to 44 this January.

The biggest increase came in the breakbulk category, mostly steel slab and steel rail, which jumped about 56 percent to 73,959 tons -- the port's busiest breakbulk month since November 2008.

Grain exports at Columbia Grain Inc., which operates out of the port's Terminal 5, jumped 26.4 percent in January to 450,579 tons.

Mineral bulk, largely soda ash and pot ash, climbed 2.3 percent in January to 383,312 tons.

Cargo containers, however, declined more than 11 percent in January to 14,183 20-foot-equivalent units, while auto imports fell more than 43 percent to 15,562 units.