Houston Overtakes New York as #1 Port

I came across an interesting item the other day in the Financial Times. It notes that in 2012, Houston surpassed New York to become the #1 US port in terms of the value of goods shipped.

The greater Houston area has replaced New York City as the largest goods exporting region of the US, official data have shown, thanks to the energy boom that is reshaping the country’s industrial landscape.

The article notes that Hurricane Sandy had an effect on New York’s numbers, but it is nonetheless a major landmark in the decline of the northeast as the engine of American business, and the rise of the Sunbelt.

Since the start of the recession at the end of 2007, the New York area has added a net 75,000 jobs, a 0.9 per cent increase, while Houston has added 195,000, a rise of 7.5 per cent.

The business-friendly atmosphere of Texas, which is the opposite of New York and most of the northeast quadrant of the country, has much to do with those job numbers as well as the port's export growth.

I don’t know when New York emerged as the biggest port, but I’d be willing to bet that it was pre-Revolution, which would mean that this is the first time in the history of the United States that New York is not the biggest port.