20 New York Throughput: 5,265,058teu (-0.6%)

Like many North American ports, a sharp decline in throughput at the end of 2008 dragged the full-year figures into negative territory for the US east coast's busiest port. In September, New York saw a 5% increase compared with the same month in 2007, a 1% increase in October 2008, but a 6.6% decline in November.

In its Master Budget report for 2009, the port paints an optimistic picture, with throughput this year predicted to rebound to 2.8m teu, although cargo volumes are expected to slow, though still remain positive, in the coming years.

By 2020, the port expects container throughput to increase by 70%, or 3.4m teu.

It has, therefore, embarked on a US$2bn 10-year capital expansion plan to ensure that its facilities can handle the forecast annual growth of 5-7% over the next decade. An incentive programme will also be launched to encourage more containers onto its ExpressRail system. It will pay $25 per container shipped by rail to any ocean carrier that increases the number of containers it transports this year over its 2008 levels. In 2008, a record 378,000 of the port's containers went by rail, representing a 6% increase over 2007.

An investment of $600m is currently being made to upgrade port rail facilities in Newark, Elizabeth and Staten Island, with the port authority aiming to raise rail's market share from 13% today to 20% within 10 years.