Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach April throughput up 1.8 percent
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach – which together constitute the nation's busiest seaport complex – reported very different traffic numbers for April, reported Los Angeles Times.
Together, they saw only a 1.8 percent increase for the month compared with a year earlier. Analysts blamed the near-flat results on the slowing Chinese economy and continuing doubts about the strength of the US recovery.
But the Port of Los Angeles had its best April ever and its best month of the year. Imports grew 16.7 percent from a year earlier to 364,556 containers. Exports rose 11.6 percent to 186,838 containers.
Overall, including empty containers sent back to Asia for later use in delivering more imports, the Port of Los Angeles moved 707,182 cargo containers in April, up 14.6 percent.
"Any time we see more than 700,000 containers, it's a very good month for us," Port of Los Angeles spokesman Phillip Sanfield said.
It was quite a different April in Long Beach.
Imports through that port fell 13.8 percent to 232,963 containers, according to preliminary numbers from the port. Exports fell 16.2 percent to 120,452 containers.
Including empty containers, Long Beach moved 461,911 containers in April, down 13 percent from a year earlier. That left the combined ports with 1.2 million containers moved in April.
Long Beach is operating with six cargo terminals instead of the seven it had before California United Terminals left in late 2010 to move into the Port of Los Angeles. Long Beach officials said the lost terminal, which is a subsidiary of Hyundai, represented about 10 percent of the port's cargo traffic.
Experts predict modest growth in traffic at the ports for the rest of the year.