New York & Tri-State + Industrial | December 21, 2018

Imports at Container Ports Continue at Near Record Levels

2019 Brings Uncertainty to Industrial After Record Port Volume

Container traffic through the Port of New York and New Jersey set a new monthly record in October, wrote CBRE’s Nicole LaRusso, and “it seems a sure bet” that 2018 will represent a new annual high. This high volume has been occurring in spite of tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.

It’s less clear, though, whether 2019 will follow suit and thus represent continued strong demand for the region’s industrial product. It’s about to begin with “several uncertainties that should be closely watched,” LaRusso wrote.

Among them are the possibility of more tariffs, higher interest rates and slowing economic growth. “These headwinds raise the degree of uncertainty about the volumes we can expect in 2019,” wrote LaRusso.

“However, while growth is not a foregone conclusion, neither is it an abrupt halt,” she noted. Accordingly, “we expect the industrial markets to remain healthy through 2019,” even if volumes diminish somewhat.

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Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 13-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 15-20 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).

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