Drop in Container Volumes in Port of LA Unsurprising

Port of Los Angeles container volumes drop 16 percent in November;  year-to-date traffic up 2.7% due to service shifts, strike.

The decrease was due in part to a vessel service shift from Los Angeles to the Port of Long Beach, and to cargo delays related to the first several days of the labor dispute.

Imports decreased 18.6 percent, from 354,313 Twenty-Foot Equivalent (TEU) containers in November  2011 to 288,273 TEUs this November. Exports decreased 25.8 percent, from 195,877 TEUs in November 2011 to 145,344 TEUs in November 2012.
 
Combined, total loaded imports and exports for November decreased 21.1 percent, from 550,190 TEUs last November to 433,617 TEUs in November 2012. Factoring in empties, which increased 3.78 percent year over year, overall November 2012 volumes (582,981) decreased 16 percent compared to November 2011 (694,108 TEUs).
 
For the first eleven months of 2012, overall container volumes have increased 2.7 percent (7,489,560 TEUs) compared to the same period in 2011 (7,291,042 TEUs).