Port of Oakland operating income drops 38% in FY20 on pandemic impact

Houston — Operating income for the Port of Oakland, California, fell by 38% in the fiscal year 2020 that ended June 30 amid a sharp drop in ship and airline passenger traffic during the March-May period.

But container volumes at the port have already rebounded to levels from before the coronavirus outbreak, which along with cost cutting measures are expected to keep the port financially resilient in fiscal year 2021, the port said on Sept. 30.

Operating income for the port fell to $41 million in fiscal year 2020 from $66 million in the previous year. Total revenue fell by 5.3% to $376 million over the same period.

Container volumes at the Oakland Seaport in fiscal year 2020 were down by 6.8% year on year. But the Port of Oakland also operates Oakland International Airport, which experienced a 70-90% drop in passenger traffic since the coronavirus pandemic led to widespread lockdowns in the US from March onwards.

"Coronavirus impacts hit during the last three months of the fiscal year. A strong first eight months lessened the impact," the port said.

Although airline travel remains limited, a sustained increase in container volumes from Asia to the US over the past three months has helped to compensate for the disruption to international trade earlier in the year. Total throughput at the Port of Oakland in August was 225,489 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), down by less than 1% from August 2019, while year-to-date volumes were down by about 5%.

As US consumer spending has shifted away from services and towards imported goods, the cost to ship a forty-foot container from North Asia to West Coast North America has almost tripled from $1,350/FEU at the start of the year to the most recent assessment at $3,800/FEU.