A linear regression analysis of a 10 year period between 1998 and 2007 with volume as a dependent variable and year as an independent variable reveals that all ports have a very high coefficient of determination (R2) of their annual throughput. This implies that the growth pattem for container throughput was mostly linear for that decade and would thus incite using linear forecasting methods to assess future volumes. For instance, for the port of New York, throughput growth between 1998 and 2007 took place in a nearly perfect linear fashion (R2 of 0.996), which corresponds to a CAG of 7.9% for the same time period.