The Port of Brunswick has resumed full operations at its car carrier terminal, FreightWaves reports, with 24 hour operations now being available. The port originally closed in early September as the result of the “Golden Ray” car carrier, operated by Hyundai Glovis having capsized just outside the harbor, as outlined in Panjiva’s research of Sept. 11. The vessel has proven unretrievable and so will be broken up onsite.

While making for dramatic images, the impact on the port’s operations overall has been minimal. Panjiva’s data shows that the volume of shipping through the port only fell by 12.4% year over year in October after being unchanged in September.

There was a bigger impact on cars than other vehicles with imports of cars having fallen by 24.6% in October compared to a 2.2% slip in September. The volume of shipments partly suffers by comparison though – imports in October 2018 represented a multi-year record.

Chart segments inbound shipments to the Port of Brunswick by origin. Source: Panjiva

Perhaps unsurprisingly the main impact among the major carmakers was felt by Kia and Hyundai, whose imports to Brunswick fell by 50.2% and 9.0% respectively year over year in October. They’d previously grown significantly with Kia’s shipment up by 9.1% and Hyundai’s by 57.1% respectively in 3Q.

Honda also saw a downturn in shipments of 11.9% in October though it’s imports more generally have been in an extended downturn. The outlier was Jaguar Land Rover with growth of 8.0% in October after minimal growth September – over the longer term though, JLR’s growth in imports to the region has been enough to justify a new distribution center. 

Chart segments inbound shipments of cars and similar vehicles (HS 8703) to the Port of Brunswick by consignee. Source: Panjiva