NEW YORK: Cargo volumes at Port of Long Beach have raised for five consecutive months as activity there continues its trend toward pre-recession levels, port officials reported.
Total container volumes — imports, exports and empty containers being sent over the ocean — rose 6.6 percent in November on a year-over-year basis. The nearly 620,000 container units moving through the port signified the second-largest shipping volume ever recorded by the Long Beach port during the month of November.
Toy imports are a significant factor in the recent statistics. Port officials attributed the rising cargo volumes in part to imports of “Star Wars” and “Minions” toys. The demand for Star Wars toys could be so strong as to push total containerized toy imports to the United States up nearly 11 percent above 2014 levels, according to a November report in the Journal of Commerce.
The numbers:
- Imports rose about 4 percent year-over-year to nearly 307,000 container units.
- Exports fell 4 percent roughly 125,000 container units.
- The volume of empty containers, which are usually sent across the Pacific so importers can ship more goods here, rose nearly 20 percent to about 188,000 containers.
Port of Long Beach officials forecast total 2015 container volumes will exceed 7 million container units. Cargo volumes have not been so high since 2006 and 2007, the years immediately preceding the Great Recession.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the Great Recession as having lasted from December 2007 through June 2009, signifying the longest downtown since World War II.
