This year’s peak shipping season has been a good one so far for the Port of Long Beach, which saw a total of 630,292 TEUs in August 2013, a 16 percent increase from the same month last year.
The port saw double-digit increases last month in the both the number of loaded inbound and loaded outbound TEUs. The more than 327,000 loaded inbound containers that moved through Long Beach last month represented a jump of over 19 percent from the about 275,000 shipped during August 2012.
There was also a 20 percent jump in the volume of loaded outbound containers, with the number increasing to over 154,100 last month from about 128,200 in August 2012.
Even the number of empty containers moved rose; last August, the port saw 140,200 empty containers, but the number was about 148,300 last month, an increase of almost six percent.
For the fiscal year-to-date, container volumes have risen 13.4 percent from the same period last year. The port saw 5.34 million TEUs up to this point in FY 2012, but has seen 6.0 million TEUs so far during FY 2013.
Long Beach’s fiscal year began last October and runs through the end of September. The peak shipping season typically runs from July through October, as shippers import goods, mainly from Asia, in preparation for the holiday season.
In July, cargo activity at the POLB also showed steady growth in imports and exports last month, as containerized cargo volume climbed 7.6 percent during the month compared to the same month a year ago.
