Cargo volumes at the Port of Long Beach were mixed in September
2012, with imports up a combined 0.7 percent and exports down 2.8 percent at container
terminals compared to the same month last year.
Overall, cargo volumes at Long Beach were down 2.9 percent compared
to September 2011. Port terminals handled over 265,000 20-foot equivalent container
units of loaded inbound cargo during the month, compared to about 263,200 TEUs in
September 2011.
Export containers declined to 114,902 TEUs, a drop of 2.8 percent
from the 118,214 TEUs moved during the same month a year ago. Empty container volumes
also declined; they fell 9.4 percent to 132,016 TEUs from 145,747 TEUs in September
2011.
For the calendar year so far, overall container volumes at the
port are down 4.4 percent, with Long Beach attributing the cause to continuing weakness
in the economy and cutbacks in ship calls by several niche vessel operators at the
end of 2011 and early 2012.
Imports are down four percent and exports down 1.3 percent through
September, compared to the same period a year ago.
September was also the final month in the port’s 2012 fiscal
year, and for the 12-month period that began in October 2011, container volumes
were down across the board. Port terminals moved a total of 5.85 million TEUs during
the fiscal year, a decline of seven percent from the 6.29 million units moved during
FY 2011. The number of loaded inbound, loaded outbound and empty containers shipped
dropped 6.6 percent, 5.8 percent and 9.1 percent, respectively, compared with the
previous fiscal year.
More details on the Long Beach cargo numbers can be found at
www.polb.com/stats.
