Los Angeles posted its first rise of the year

Export volume from the ports of Los Angeles increased by 18 per cent in November, while neighbouring Long Beach rose four per cent and Oakland shot up 39.7 per cent year on year driven by a weak dollar.
"It's the first increase since the economic crisis began last year," Art Wong, a Port of Long Beach spokesman, was quoted as saying in a report by the Los Angeles Business Journal.

Los Angeles posted its first rise of the year in exports earlier in October when 149,147 TEU was handled, up by 12 per cent compared to the same month in 2008.

Oakland reported its smallest year-on-year decline in container imports in November, a 1.2 per cent drop that helped the California port show its first overall increase in monthly container volume of 2009.
At LA, overall traffic remained down from last year. "It's a silver lining to the overall numbers," Port of Los Angeles spokesman Phillip Sanfield said. "We are seeing more exports because the US dollar is weak, which makes US goods more competitively priced, and there are signs of an economic recovery with our trade partners in Asia."

November's total traffic, which includes both imports and empty containers, fell by 19.6 per cent year on year at the Port Long Beach to 448,151 TEU and by 12 per cent at Port of Los Angeles to 580,206 TEU. Port officials attributed the decline to "shipping lines that downsized their vessels or sent fewer ships due to less consumer demands," the report said.

Source: Transport Weekly