Los Angeles Ports to Set Shipping Records

According to Xinhua the two ports here in the Los Angles area are poised to set records for container shipping volume this year thanks to ever-surging trade with China and new but impressive business with India, a report said Saturday. As of November, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which form the United States' largest seaport complex, were only a few thousand shipping containers short of the 13.1 million they handled all of last year, the Los Angeles Times reported. Officials said the ports will probably handle more than 14 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs), the maritime industry standard for cargo that is shipped in large containers, by the end of this year, with total volume exceeding that of the next four busiest U.S. ports combined. Trade experts expect the flow of cargo to continue a sharp upward trend, especially India has greatly increased its manufacturing and exporting capacity, according to the report. It said that several U.S. ports reported that trade with India was growing faster, although China remains the trade juggernaut on the West and East Coasts. In California, exports to India have risen sharply this year, amounting to 955 million dollars through the first three quarters, almost equaling the 1 billion dollars recorded for all of 2004, according to the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. Meanwhile, as a major gateway for U.S. trade to China, California exported 6.8 billion dollars of goods, mainly electronic equipment, machinery, computer-related and agricultural products, to China in 2004.