Imports at Port Up 18.8% Year-to-Date

PORTLAND-The Port appears to be making progress in its attempt to balance out marine-related operations currently weighted heavily toward exports. Thanks in part to new importer Dollar Tree, imports through the first nine months of the year are up 18.8% from the same period last year.

Now, instead of a 7-to-1 export-to-import ratio, the Port tells GlobeSt.com that ratio is at 4-to-1. The result is a decrease in the cost of exporting because there is now less need for “dead-heading” — paying to bring in empty containers. A better balance also helps attract and retain ocean shipping lines and land-based carriers that have had the opposite problem — more imports than exports — further increasing Portland’s competitiveness as a container port.

The hope is that such incentives, along with new value-added services such as free temporary dock container storage and use of the foreign trade zone, will attract new import distribution facilities on 115 acres at the Rivergate Industrial District being marketed by CB Richard Ellis.