TULSA
– Tonnage handled at the Tulsa Port of Catoosa plunged 56 percent in
July from last year, illustrating one volatile side of Arkansas River
commerce.
“To me, month to month doesn’t really mean a lot,” said
Port Director Bob Portiss. “It doesn’t really give you a trend because
things can happen.”
Seasonal changes, for one. Agricultural product shipments often drop in the summer, coinciding with harvests.
Due
to lower agricultural shipments, Catoosa’s outbound tonnage dropped
57.8 percent from last year to 58,148 in July on 32 barges. It also
fell 41 percent from June results.
But Portiss said iron and
steel shipments, which have declined all year because of the recession,
turned around in July to help raise inbound tonnage 11.9 percent from
2008 to 70,923 tons on 44 barges. It more than doubled June’s results.
“This
generally indicates an increase in industrial activity, which is good
not only for us but for the economy as a whole,” said Ed Fariss,
chairman of the city of Tulsa-Rogers County Port Authority.
To
Portiss, that inbound traffic suggests manufacturers have replenished
their inventories for more production – a possible indicator of
economic stabilization.
“It’s not significant enough to say, ‘Wow, look at that,’ but it does help explain the jump from June to July,” he said.
Such
changes illustrate why Portiss prefers to evaluate activity from a
calendar-year perspective. July’s decline brought the Tulsa Port of
Catoosa’s tonnage through the first seven months of 2009 to 1.2
million, down just 4 percent from a year ago.
That represented 13
percent of all products moved on the 445-mile McClellan-Kerr Arkansas
River Navigation System, extending from the port to the Mississippi
River.
Portiss expects the port to endure another bump in August
because of a technical issue – the draining of block and dam 17 and 18,
which could shut down all barge traffic for up to two weeks.
“What’s
important to me is where we’re at so far this year, having gone through
seven months of shipping activity,” he said. “While we’re down, it’s
not statistically significant.”