January turned out to be a mixed bag at the Southern California ports, with the Long Beach port reporting across the board container volume growth, while total monthly container volume at the neighboring Los Angeles fell once again into the negative.
Long Beach port officials reported that monthly box volumes handled in January increased by 7.4 percent to 428,805 TEUs compared to the same month in 2009. It was the second straight month of positive growth for Long Beach, after more than a year of negative volume numbers. Total loaded inbound volume increased to 217,925 TEUs, an 8.6 percent increase over January 2009. Total loaded outbound container volume also jumped up compared to the year-ago-period, ending the month up 27.9 percent at 113,183 TEUs.
Across the harbor at the adjacent Los Angeles port, total container volume handled for the month fell to 2.4 percent to 572,969 TEUs, a 2.4 percent decrease over January 2009. Total loaded inbound container volume for January also dipped 6.7 percent, ending the month with 296,305 TEUs handled. On the other hand, total loaded outbound container volume for January jumped a sizable 35.2 percent compared to the same period last year and ending the month with 141,244 TEUs handled.
