Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Port of LA Has Busiest Cargo Month in Two Years

Container terminals at the Port of Los Angeles moved nearly 745,000 TEUs during September 2012, making it the busiest month in overall volumes at the port in two years, according to newly released data.

The port’s overall volumes increased 5.57 percent last month compared to September 2011. It was the strongest single-month in overall volumes since August 2010 when overall volumes reached 763,837 TEUs, according to the data.

Imports increased 3.38 percent year-over-year, rising from 372,655 TEUs in September 2011 to 385,250 TEUs this September.

Combined, total loaded imports and exports for August increased 1.47 percent, from 549,609 TEUs last September to 557,683 TEUs in September 2012. Also, the number of empty containers shipped through the port was up dramatically year over last year. The number rose to 187,240 TEUs from 156,000 containers in September 2011, an increase of more than 31,200 TEUs, or 20.01 percent.

The news for the month wasn’t all good, however. Exports decreased 2.56 percent at port terminals, dropping from 176,954 TEUs in September 2011 to 172,432 TEUs in September 2012, a 2.5 percent decline.

For the first nine months of calendar year 2012, overall container volumes increased 5.16 percent to 6.18 million TEUs compared to 5.8 million containers in the same period in 2011.

For the current fiscal year, which began July 1, container terminals at the port have sent and received a total of 2.1 million TEUs, a 2.8 percent jump from the same three-month period last year.
Current and past data container counts for the Port of Los Angeles may be found at