WASHINGTON, Oct 21: Hurricanes Katrina and Rita took a big bite out of US Gulf Coast exports in September, a US Census Bureau report showed on Friday. Total exports through the ports on the Gulf Coast between Tampa and Houston declined $1.2 billion, or 15.2 per cent, based on a comparison of preliminary, non-seasonally adjusted data for September and August, the Census Bureau said in its first estimate of how the storms effected US trade.

Exports through the hard-hit New Orleans region ports fell $590 million in September, led by big drops in chemicals, petroleum, coal products and farm and food products. The United States ships much of its corn, wheat and soybeans through Louisiana ports on the Mississippi River.

Operations at the Port of New Orleans, which port officials estimate could cost to $1.7bn to repair, are still well below normal more than six weeks after Katrina.

“We’re averaging now somewhere in the neighbourhood of 14 to 15 ship calls per week,” or about 35 to 40 per cent of pre-hurricane levels, said Chris Bonura, a port spokesman. “Truck capacity is about 35 to 40 per cent, too.”

Meanwhile, outbound trade through the Houston area ports dropped $579 million in September, with chemicals and machinery showing the biggest declines.

Because of the high prices, the value of crude oil imports through the Gulf Coast region declined only 3.3 per cent in September to $6.82 billion even though the volume fell 11.6 per cent to 119.1 million barrels.

—Reuters