Source: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
While the New York metropolitan area houses 20 million people, an extra 80 million can be reached within 24 hours, making the direct market area of the port of New York the largest in North America and one of the most extensive in the world. This market density is thus significant since within 700 miles of the port resides about 55% of the U.S. population. Under such circumstances, the late 1990s saw an impressive growth of container traffic for New York, on par with the significant growth the American economy was experiencing.
Still, the rank of New York among the world’s largest container port continued to decline to the 23rd position in 2015. Its national share has also improved since 2000 as the Port of New York / New Jersey accounted for 13.5% of all containers handled by American ports and for 59% of all containers on the North Atlantic coast. The changes in the average TEU per container handled are also revealing and indicates that the average box size is increasing. Import based ports are usually importing more 40 foot containers (including high cubes) than the standard 20 foot container.