The Port of Long Beach has completed its best-ever first quarter, with marine terminals handling almost 1.9 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) January through March. The quick start is 19.4 percent more than the first quarter of 2017, the Port’s busiest year ever, the company said in its press release. The previous first quarter record was set in 2007.
March throughput reached 575,258 TEUs, an increase of 13.8 percent compared to the same month last year.
Dockworkers moved 267,824 import TEUs in March, 7.3 percent more than a year ago. Exports grew 18.3 percent to 142,419 TEUs.
The large number of imported goods demanded by American consumers meant container ships hauled 165,015 empty TEUs overseas to be refilled.