Young Brothers Reports InterIsland Cargo Volume Down for First Quarter

Young Brothers, Hawai‘i’s interisland tug and barge company, reports regulated inter-state cargo volume was down by 5.3% for the period covering Jan. 1 to March 31, 2019.

“Young Brothers continued to see increased volume in the first quarter of the year in agriculture, construction, and the retail and wholesale sectors, reflecting the larger growth trends in Hawai’i’s economy,” said Keith Kiyotoki, manager of sales and marketing at Young Brothers. “That said, we saw a decrease in overall cargo volume at all ports except Lāna’i and Moloka’i.”

Postal services, wholesale and retail, and recycling and waste industries had the largest increases of 15.9%, 15.6% and 7.4%, respectively. While manufacturing, entertainment, utilities, and transportation industries had the largest decline of 39.2%, 29.2%, 19.8% and 15.8%, respectively.

Hilo and Kawaihae cargo volumes are each down approximately 12% over the prior comparable period with declines attributed to activity in the food and beverage, transportation, and entertainment industries. Maui is down 2.3% and Kaua’i is down 2.0%.

Lāna’i and Moloka’i cargo volumes increased by 28.7% and 4.9% respectively with growth on Lanai attributed to hotel renovations and other projects.

Young Brothers’ shipping volumes for the first quarter of 2019 and comparable prior year periods are shown below by port.

NOTE: The “All Ports” category reflects all loaded cargo items transported by Young Brothers. In contrast, the sum of individual ports is greater than the amount of shipments in the “All Ports” total. This difference is due to transshipment cargo volumes (i.e., cargo that originates on a neighbor island, is transshipped at Young Brother’s Honolulu hub, and terminates at another neighbor island port), which are attributed to the neighbor island origin port as “outbound” cargo and the neighbor island destination port as “inbound” cargo. Transshipped cargo makes up a relatively small percentage of total cargo volume (approximately 5%).

The table below provides a comparison by industry for the same periods.

NOTE: Industry classifications are based on a per-company or account customer basis, and exclude non-account customers. Non-account customers represent approximately 15% of total cargo volume.

About the Young Brothers Quarterly Cargo Volume Report

• Young Brothers’ quarterly intrastate shipping volumes reflect only cargo shipments that originate and terminate within Hawai’i.
• Shipping volumes are measured using Revenue Tonnage. Revenue Tonnage is a volumetric measure based on cargo dimensions, where one Revenue Ton is equal to 40 cubic feet. A standard 40-foot Container—40 feet in length, 8 feet wide, and 8.5 feet high—measures at 2,720 cubic feet and is equivalent to 68 revenue tons.
• Shipping volumes are based on sail date and include loaded freight only.
• The Quarterly Cargo Volume Report will be released after the close of each quarter.
• Young Brothers plays a critical role in Hawai’i as the water carrier responsible for transporting all cargo that originates and ends in the state. It is also the only water carrier to serve all islands, including Lāna’i and Moloka’i, and transport all types of cargo no matter how big or how small.