CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — So far this year, the business moving in and out at the Port of Corpus Christi has slowed down a bit. But, revenue is up over its own budget forecast.
Right now, most of the products that the Port of Corpus Christi handles are goods being exported. Matter of fact, the statistics show that 75-percent of the port's business is on the export side. A lot of that is in the form of crude oil.
"We are having a very strong year with agriculture exports," CEO Sean Strawbridge said. "Crude oil experts vis-à-vis this time last year are down a bit and a lot of that is due to the fact that overall US production is down.”
The first quarter of this year's tonnage is down slightly from last year by 9-percent. But, compare this year’s first quarter with the same time period in 2019, and its nearly doubled since then. Also, liquefied natural gas shipments in January and March were at record levels, which helped to offset the decline in oil shipments.
"The Port Of Corpus Christi is positioned well for a global recovery which will be driven by hydrocarbons," Strawbridge said. "Hydrocarbon consumption will continue to grow.”
As far as revenue, the port is up 4-percent over what the budget forecast was for the 1st quarter. That’s 11-percent behind last year’s pre-pandemic number.
"Our budget reflected the fact that we actually expected there to be a pull back from our 2020 performance based on what we saw," Strawbridge said. "The market conditions and the pace of the recovery, the economic recovery as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic.”
Finally, Strawbridge believes that the Biden administration will support energy exports from the US to try and displace Russian and Iranian oil products. That, in part, would be in response to Russian hackers who launched a cyberattack against the colonial pipeline and shut it down.
That pipeline is responsible for the country’s largest fuel pipeline and it may not be fully operational until the end of the week.
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