{"id":181481,"date":"2026-02-26T16:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T16:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/181481\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T16:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T16:33:08","slug":"port-houston-posts-record-january-as-exports-surge-corpus-crude-slips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/181481\/","title":{"rendered":"Port Houston posts record January as exports surge; Corpus crude slips"},"content":{"rendered":"

Port Houston<\/a> opened 2026 with its busiest January on record for containers, driven by growth in petrochemical exports, resin packaging capacity and refrigerated cargo moving through the Houston Ship Channel.<\/p>\n

The port handled 370,034 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in January, a 4% increase from the same month last year and the largest January total on record.<\/p>\n

Loaded imports and loaded exports each rose 5% year over year, with petrochemical products and resins continuing to anchor outbound container volumes.<\/p>\n

During the Feb. 19 Port Commission meeting, port leadership emphasized the strong start across the broader channel.<\/p>\n

\u201cJanuary started off strong. Vessel volumes for the entire port are up 2% versus last year, which was a good year last year,\u201d Ryan Mariacher, chief port operations officer told commissioners during a commission meeting on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Mariacher said January was the busiest January on record for containers, with over 370,000 TEUs handled and growth at both Bayport and Barbours Cut container terminals.<\/p>\n

Resin exports and cold-chain lift volumes<\/p>\n

Port Houston handles about 60% of U.S. resin exports, a share expected to expand as new packaging capacity comes online.<\/p>\n

Phase I of Packwell\u2019s new 725,000-square-foot resin packaging facility near Bayport Container Terminal was recently completed, adding rail-served unloading, high-speed packaging equipment and warehousing adjacent to the marine terminal complex.<\/p>\n

Port officials say the added capacity should reduce costs and strengthen connectivity to global carrier services.<\/p>\n

Refrigerated container traffic has also been trending upward. Reefer volumes rose 13% in 2025, supported by established cold-chain infrastructure and USDA-APHIS cold-treatment certification that allows certain perishable shipments to complete treatment while in transit.<\/p>\n

Commercial leaders told commissioners there has been a \u201cconsiderable uptick in demand\u201d from retail customers for refrigerated imports and exports.<\/p>\n

Truck, vessel and total tonnage growth<\/p>\n

CEO Charlie Jenkins said demand is translating into activity across terminals and along the channel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing solid demand across both of our public container terminals and a wide range of cargo moving through the Houston gateway. That demand is showing up across our operations, including a record single-day total of 16,438 truck transactions at our container terminals in January,\u201d Jenkins said.<\/p>\n

He added that vessel movements along the Houston Ship Channel are off to a steady start in 2026, with arrivals up 2%.<\/p>\n

Across all cargo categories, Port Houston handled 4.5 million short tons in January, a 6% increase compared to the same month last year.<\/p>\n

General cargo volumes increased 27% during the month, while steel imports declined 35% to 213,653 short tons, reflecting softer drilling activity tied to the Baker Hughes rig count.<\/p>\n

Corpus Christi crude slides, but total cargo climbs<\/p>\n

Elsewhere along the Texas coast, the Port of Corpus Christi reported mixed energy volumes but overall cargo growth in January.<\/p>\n

The port recorded 18 million tons of total freight in January, up 6.5% year over year compared to the same period in 2025.<\/p>\n

Crude oil shipments fell 9.5% to 10.46 million tons, with exports declining 10% to 9.8 million tons. However, petroleum shipments climbed 28% to 5.9 million tons, with exports rising 36% to 4.6 million tons.<\/p>\n

Dry bulk cargo increased 40% to 782,371 tons. Bulk grain movements surged 5,443%, consisting of one outbound shipment of 432,754 tons in January. Chemical bulk cargo jumped 55% to 312,584 tons.<\/p>\n

The port handled 402 barge calls in January, up 2% year over year, while ship calls increased 18% to 224.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Port Houston opened 2026 with its busiest January on record for containers, driven by growth in petrochemical exports,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156,14227,10986,2992],"class_list":["post-181481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news","tag-gulf-coast-ports","tag-port-houston","tag-port-of-corpus-christi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}