Cargo shipments between Honolulu and six neighbor island ports declined modestly in the second quarter, reversing the gains made during the previous three-month period, according to a report issued Tuesday by Young Bros. Ltd., the state’s main interisland shipping company.
The volume of goods shipped during the April-through-June period fell 2.7 percent from the same period in 2011.
That followed a gain of 2.6 percent in the first quarter on a year-over-year basis.
The volatility isn’t surprising given the tentative nature of Hawaii’s economic recovery, said Glenn Hong, president of Young Bros.
“The drop in second-quarter volume reflects the continued economic uncertainty,” Hong said. “While we would prefer to reflect positive comparisons like we experienced in the first quarter of the year, the neighbor island economies at least appear to be stabilizing.”
The recent economic recession was deeper and lasted longer on the neighbor islands then on Oahu. Although the gap is beginning to narrow, the unemployment rates on Maui, Hawaii island and Kauai still range from 1 to nearly 4 percentage points higher than on Oahu.
Young Bros.’ quarterly shipping report tracks cargo volumes using a standard unit of measurement called “container/platform equivalents,” or CPE. Young Bros. uses the CPE so it can compare cargo volumes across different sizes of containers.
For the April-through-June period the volume of cargo from Honolulu to six neighbor island ports totaled 32,884 CPEs, down 2.7 percent from 33,795 CPEs in the second quarter of 2011.
Hong noted that while overall cargo volume declined, shipments of agricultural products rose 7 percent. Young Bros. provides a discount of 30 percent to 35 percent for locally produced agricultural products.
By island, shipments between Honolulu and Kaunakakai on Molokai posted the biggest drop, an 11.4 percent decline. Other ports that saw declines were Kawaihae, down 8.3 percent; Nawiliwili, down 2.5 percent; Hilo, down 1.8 percent; and Kahului, down 0.9 percent. An 18.8 percent increase in Lanai cargo volume was mainly the result of Young Bros. taking over shipments of the island’s fuel supply that were previously delivered by another company.
