Southern California Export Containers Soar
January 15, 2010Containerized exports in Southern California soared in December, increasing 40.2 percent over December 2008 at the Port of Los Angeles and 30.9 percent at the Port of Long Beach.
The nation’s two largest container ports closed out their worst year in decades. Total container volume, including loaded imports and exports and empty containers, was down 14 percent in Los Angeles to 6,748,945 20-foot equivalent units. Long Beach was down 22 percent to 5,067,597 TEUs.
Imports continued to show gradual improvement as they have done each month since late summer. Long Beach reported an increase of 13.4 percent over December 2008. Imports through Los Angeles were 4.4 percent lower than the previous December.
Total container volume increased 8.7 percent compared to December 2008 in Long Beach and 0.35 percent in Los Angeles.
The trend of recent months indicates that the U.S. trade recovery will be led by exports. “The spike in loaded outbound containers was a nice way to put a tough year behind us,” said Geraldine Knatz, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles.
Trade analysts anticipate a gradual recovery in U.S. imports, which out-number containerized exports by a factor of two to one.
