Car Traffic Surges At Port Of Tacoma

The number of cars moving through the Port of Tacoma jumped 45 percent in the first three months of this year, thanks to a decision by Mitsubishi to ship most of its models to the port.

The Japanese automaker is now shipping all except its California-bound Diamante models through Tacoma.

More than 23,000 autos moved across the Tacoma docks in the first three months, compared with 16,000 a year earlier. Most import cars leave the port on rail cars bound for inland markets.

Doug Ljungren, the port’s business planning manager, said a depression in two of the port’s lucrative cargoes - cars and logs - has about bottomed out.

For logs, which are exported, mainly to Japan, “this is the first increase since 1989,” Ljungren said. “I think the decline is about over.”

For the three months ending March 31, log exports from Tacoma rose 4 percent, to just under 200,000 tons.