Cargo chasing records again in South Florida

 

By DOUGLAS HANKS The Miami Herald
 Imports and exports continue hitting record numbers, though a new gold rush skews the stats a bit. South Florida cargo levels still chasing past highs at the ports.
By DOUGLAS HANKS
dhanks@MiamiHerald.com
South Florida’s roaring trade recovery continues, with an asterisk.

The most closely watched trade measure — the dollar value of cargo shipped in and out of South Florida ports — soared to new heights at the end of 2011. Recently released figures show Port Everglades and Port Miami combined to hit an average of $10 billion in December. That’s almost 20 percent higher than just a year ago and 40 percent higher than in December 2007, when the national recession officially began.
But part of the boost came from a run on all things gold as precious metals soared in value during the volatile recession and recovery. Scraps of precious metals amounted to the top export from the Miami Customs District last year, according to worldcityweb.com, and Switzerland — a conduit for the gold trade — emerged as the region’s No. 3 trade partner behind Brazil and Colombia. (Venezuela was No. 4 and China No. 5.)
Cargo shipments as measured by container space still have not recovered to their past peaks. In the fall, container volume was up about 7 percent from the prior year but still 5 percent off a record set in the spring of 2007.
Seven months after that peak in April 2007, the national economy officially entered its downturn. So when South Florida cargo moves back into an expansion mode, it will be a milestone definitely worth celebrating.
The Miami Herald’s Economic Time Machine tracks 60 local indicators in an effort to chart South Florida’s recovery from the Great Recession. By comparing current conditions to where they were before the downturn, the ETM attempts to measure how far back the recession set the economy. The answer so far: June 2002. Visit ETM headquarters at miamiherald.com/economic-time-machine for the latest updates.