WASHINGTON: The nation’s largest container port had its busiest May on record, as import volumes grew and exports recovered slightly from a recent downturn. The Port of Los Angeles imported 400,766 loaded 20-foot equivalent units, or TEU’s, a standard measure for container cargo, last month. That was an 15% improvement over May 2015.
Dockworkers handled 162,487 loaded export TEUs in May, 6.3% more than the same month. That volume was only slightly ahead of 2014 levels, however, in a sign that the weakening of the dollar in recent weeks has only partially driven a recovery in the export economy.
For the first five months of the year, exports through the Port of L.A. were down nearly 11% from the same span in 2014—although they are ahead of the first part of 2015, a period that included lengthy slowdowns due to labor strife at West Coast ports. Exports lagged at ports across the country over much of the past year as a strong dollar made U.S. goods more expensive to overseas customers.
L.A. Port Director Gene Seroka said he was “encouraged” by the improvement in cargo throughput, which comes as retailers are setting orders to stock shelves for the fall in a shipping season that typically builds to a peak in August or September. The upswing in Los Angeles mirrored trends at other West Coast ports, including neighboring Long Beach and Oakland, where imports appear to be bouncing back and exports are slowly gaining ground.
Los Angeles and other West Coast ports face a new challenge with the opening later this month of an expanded Panama Canal, however. The canal will be able to handle larger ships and there are signs that carriers are shifting some capacity to the longer routes from Asia to the U.S. East Coast. Alphaliner, a container shipping research group, says its latest measure shows shipping capacity from the Asia to the U.S. West Coast is set to decline 3% this summer while cargo space from Asia to the East Coast will grow 4%.
That will add up to a decline of 1% in overall available capacity, or a reduction of 16,000 TEUs a week, in the period when ocean carriers and importers usually gear up operations for the busiest shipping season. “Sluggish demand and low freight rates are forcing carriers to take unprecedented steps to slash capacity, just as the traditional peak shipping season begins,” Alphaliner said in the report released Wednesday.
