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The head of one of the largest U.S. gateways for trade said robust demand for imported goods likely will be sustained into 2022 as companies scramble to rebuild stockpiles during an uneven rebound from the pandemic.

With the sun gleaming off the Manhattan skyline in the distance, the massive ship passed slowly underneath the Bayonne Bridge on the morning of May 20, tooting its horn to the delight of about two dozen onlookers on the bridge deck hundreds of feet up.

The nation’s ports continued their breakneck pace in November as imported products arrived and unloaded at a record or near-record rate at facilities on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.

The nation’s East Coast ports continued to be battered by lower imports from overseas in June because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many of the nation’s ports continue to see growth in import and export activity, as retailers gear up for what is expected to be a strong fourth quarter and holiday shopping season.

WASHINGTON — Port authorities, trucking companies and shippers are hopeful that the infrastructure bill to be debated in Congress will fund solutions to alleviate congestion in the ocean container freight industry, panelists said Jan. 9 at the Transportation Research Board’s annual meeting here.

Real estate prices to build distribution centers near major marine ports and intermodal ramps jumped double-digits in 2017, according to commercial real estate firm CBRE, as demand outstrips supply due to a retail supply chain increasingly tied to e-commerce and speed.

The average time it took a trucker to enter and exit the ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., inched up one minute in June from the same month in 2016, although data from the Harbor Trucking Association revealed encouraging signs that drivers are moving quicker than a year ago.

One year into operations of the expanded Panama Canal, the freight transportation world has witnessed leviathan containerships, gargantuan land-based cranes and dredging projects along the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts, but intermodal shipping professionals say it’s too early to quantify the precise impact of the massive infrastructure project.