The Southern California ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles continued to rack up solid container volume growth, with each port reporting nearly 25 percent gains in August compared to the same period last year. Imports accounted for nearly all of the monthly gains, but these gains were offset at both ports by minor declines in export traffic for the month.
The Port of Long Beach handled a total of 611,002 TEUs in August, a 23.9 percent gain over August 2009. Port officials reported handling 311,240 loaded inbound TEUs in August, a 24.5 percent increase over the year-ago period. These gains were offset slightly by a 3.5 percent decline in loaded outbound containers, with the final tally for August loaded outbound boxes ending at 126,039 TEUs.
The neighboring Port of Los Angeles handled a total of 763,837 TEUs in August, a 24.7 percent increase over the same period last year. As with Long Beach, the Port of Los Angeles realized nearly all of their monthly gains in the form of imports. Los Angeles officials report handling 399,150 loaded inbound TEUs in August, a 23.3 percent increase over August 2009. The port also handled 147,609 TEUs in August, a 1.8 percent decline over the same period last year.
Comparing total container traffic in the first eight months of this year to the same period in 2009, Long Beach is up 10.7 percent and Los Angeles is up 17.9 percent.