Busy Month at Los Angeles and Long Beach Ports
It was evident retailers were busy stocking their shelves because cargo-container traffic at the country’s busiest port complex was up by more than one-third in June compared with last year.
The number of cargo containers coming in and out of the Port of Los Angeles jumped 32 percent in June compared with the same month last year, while next door at the Port of Long Beach, cargo-container traffic rose nearly 29 percent.
The boom in imports and exports made June one of the busiest months the ports have ever seen and kicked off peak shipping season as goods start to roll in for Back-to-School sales and the holidays. But experts warned that port traffic could taper off during the second half of the year as consumers start cooling their heels.
“The volumes [in Long Beach] have been up about 20 percent through the first six months,” said Port of Long Beach spokesperson Art Wong. “I think we were surprised overall that it has been as strong as it has been. We have been hearing that people were pretty optimistic in the spring and that we would have strong volumes into at least the early summer. The big deal is whether this is going to be sustained. The imports coming in here now were probably ordered a couple of months ago. But since then there has been more uncertainty. I don’t think it will be surprising if things level off or bounce around a bit.”
The total number of 20-foot containers coming in and out of the Port of Long Beach was 520,100 in June, compared with 413,347 in June 2009. At the Port of Los Angeles, cargo containers arriving and leaving the docks in June totaled 730,317, compared with 551,679 last year.
The two ports handle about 40 percent of all the cargo-container traffic coming in and out of the United States.—Deborah Belgum
