Port of Los Angeles sees declines in March volumes

The timing of the Chinese New Year appears to have crimped volumes at the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) for the month of March.

Coming off of a strong February, March saw total volume—at 503,168 TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) fall 22.6 percent compared to March 2012. Imports—at 231,396 TEU—decreased 28.7 percent, and exports—at 154,428 TEU—were off 17.9 percent annually. And empties—at 114,343 TEU—were down 14.7 percent.

For the first three months of 2013, total POLA volume is down 4.7 percent at 1,787,127 TEU.

Last month, POLA officials said that February volumes benefitted from a surge in imports prior to the closure of factories for the Chinese New Year, with the holiday beginning on February 10.

“The way in which the Chinese New Year fell, starting on February 10, and factories closing right before that and they getting ahead of the game because they are closing down,” said POLA Director of Media Relations Phillip Sanfield in a recent interview.

“And it still takes ten-to-15 days for the goods to get here so we had all of the cargo from pre-Chinese New Year coming in January.

As for how March volumes would shake out, Sanfield at the time said there was some, as goods were not being produced in China from February 10 to about a week after. These goods would typically hit U.S. ports in March, but that may was not likely to be the case this year.