Ports of LA/Long Beach stay on course

Both major ocean cargo gateways in San Pedro Bay posted positive numbers for container throughput in April.

Despite diminished activity on the transpacific trade lanes, the nation’s leading ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach captured more than their share of inbound calls.

“We have had 15 months of consecutive growth, “ said Port of LA spokesman, Philip Sanfield. “Last month we also had record exports, although we could not repeat that in April.”

Total number of twenty-foot equivalent containers (TEUs) numbered 617,272.50 in April, besting last year’s performance by 3.69 percent.

At the Port of Long Beach, reports were even more encouraging. After a slight dip in container cargo volume in March compared to a year ago, the port experienced a rebound in April with a 12 percent increase in imports and a 9.5 percent growth overall compared to April 2010.

Overall, the port moved 531,090 twenty-foot equivalent container units last month compared to 485,059 TEUs in April of last year.

Port terminals handled 270,107 TEUs of import containers, almost 30,000 TEUs more than a year ago.  Exports jumped by 10.4 percent to 143,683 TEUs, aided by a weaker dollar and growing demand abroad. Empty container moves were up 3.2 percent to 117,300 TEUs. Most empty containers, noted port spokesmen, are bound overseas for refilling.

When news broke earlier this month that the liner start-up, The Containership Company (TCC), would cease to operate its Shanghai-Los Angeles shuttle, there was some speculation among analysts that the Port of LA would feel the impact.

Not so, said Sanfield:

“While we were sorry to see the service discontinued, it did not represent a lot of business here. Thanks to the acquisition of California United Terminals (CUT) late year, we are still making very positive numbers in comparison to 2010.”

As reported in LM, the terminals moved to LA from Long Beach late last year.

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