WASHINGTON: The ports of Los Angeles the Long Beach saw imports jump in August, kicking off what analysts expect to be three strong months for shipping leading into the holiday season.
Imports through Los Angeles were up 6.3% from last August, with the port receiving 407,804 twenty-foot equivalent units, a standard measure for container cargo. The neighboring Port of Long Beach moved 358,262 import TEUs, an increase of 19.1% over last year. Combined, the ports are the largest entry point for container cargo to the U.S., with the vast majority coming from Asia.
U.S. ports could see imports rise even more next month with the arrival of goods from China that were shipped after the country devalued its currency. China cut the yuan’s value last month, making items produced in Chinese factories cheaper for foreign buyers. However, the ocean trip from Asia to the U.S. can take nearly three weeks, so orders made after the devaluation would only start showing up at West Coast ports in early September. The dollar’s increased buying power in China, along with healthy U.S. consumer demand, should lead to surging traffic at major ports, analysts say.
Analysts with the National Retail Federation and shipping consulting firm Hackett Associates LLC expect September’s import cargo volume to increase 1.2% nationwide over last year. For 2015 overall imports are expected to be up 5.4% over 2014, according to a report the groups released jointly on Wednesday.
Still, they noted that import volume remains “stubbornly” higher than export volume.
Paul Bingham, an economist with the Economic Development Research Group Inc., said the decline is likely driven both by slower growth both in China and among China’s trading partners in Europe and other parts of Asia. “There’s a lot of weakness in terms of end-consumer markets,” he said.
Los Angeles and Long Beach saw empty export containers kick up to more than 450,000 combined in August, due in part to the lack of export demand from abroad as well as a repositioning of containers overseas to accommodate extra holiday volume still-to-come. In Los Angeles empties were up 14% and in Long Beach they increased by 42.1% over last August.
Loaded export containers were a mixed bag—down 14% in Los Angeles and up 9.4% in Long Beach over last year. For the calendar year through August, loaded exports were down at both ports.
Added together, Long Beach beat its own monthly record for total import and export volume and Los Angeles recording its best August volume since 2006.
