SoCal ports report 7th straight month of cargo declines

The Southern California ports winter of discontent is not shaping up to turn to a glorious summer, as combined container volumes in April slipped for the seventh straight month at the nation's two busiest container ports.

The adjacent ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, respectively the No. 1 and 2 busiest container ports in the nation, are down a collective 7 percent over the first four months of 2007. Combined volumes fell to 4.56 million TEUs in the first four months of this year from 4.9 million TEUs reported in the year-ago period.

The Los Angeles port reported 2.46 million TEUs handled through the end of April, a drop of nearly 200,000 TEUs, or 7.4 percent, over the same period last year.

Neighboring Long Beach lost nearly 150,000 TEUs for a 6.5 percent drop in container volumes through April compared to the first four months of 2007.

For April, Los Angeles posted a 10.9 percent drop in TEU volume over the same period a year ago. April also represented a full year of month-to-month declines for Los Angeles, and the 13th of the last 14 months to post a drop. Los Angeles has not recorded a monthly increase over 1 percent since February 2007.

Next door, Long Beach has reported month-to-month declines for six of the past seven months. The one exception, December 2007, registered an increase of 0.02 percent.

One bright spot for the ports has been a surge in exported containers, as U.S. exports continue to boom with the near record low value of the dollar on the world market.

The two ports reported a collective 17.3 percent increase in exports last year. In the first four months of this year, Long Beach has seen a 29 percent increase in exported containers and Los Angeles has recorded a 22 percent increase.

However, imported container numbers continued to decline in April, adding to an already dismal year to date. Long Beach has seen a 10.1 percent decline in imported containers during the first four months of 2008 compared to the year-ago period. Los Angeles has seen a similar 8.52 percent year-to-date decline in imported containers over the first four months of 2007. 

Source: American Shipper