Ports’ Cargo Flow Slows After October Spike

By CLAUDIA PESCHIUTTA

Staff Reporter

Both the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach had record-breaking cargo movement last month, the result of early holiday optimism by retailers long before the Sept. 11 attacks.

But movement this month has slowed and a further decline is expected through early 2002.

“All this Christmas stuff was ordered six months ago. That’s why it has stayed strong,” said Jeff Coppersmith, president of Coppersmith Inc., an El Segundo customs broker and freight fowarder. Since items are ordered weeks or months before they are shipped, Coppersmith predicted that business at the ports wouldn’t drop off until early next year.

In October, traditionally a busy month for ports because of holiday merchandise shipments, Los Angeles moved 505,020 cargo containers, a 4.9 percent jump over the like year-earlier period. Long Beach shipped through 434,866 containers, a 0.5 percent increase from October 2000.

Before Sept. 11, retailers had been relatively optimistic about holiday sales expecting them to be similar to last year and ordered accordingly. Much of the freight began to move through the ports in October.

“In August, September and October our numbers were pretty close to what they were last year,” said port spokesman Art Wong. “Retailers were thinking consumers were going to spend something close to what they were spending a year ago. Obviously, that’s changed.”

In some ways, the attacks may have caused a short-term boost for the shipping industry. Tougher security and restrictions for air freight has led some retailers to switch to shipping by sea, said W. Guy Fox, chairman of Global Transportation Services Inc., a customs broker and freight forwarder in Redondo Beach.

“After Sept. 11 there was practically no air freight at all coming into the U.S. so there was a tremendous backlog,” he said. “(Shipping by sea) means a lot longer wait but what are you going to do, have it sit in the airport for two weeks or are you going to have it sit on a vessel for two weeks and get here?”

Global Transportation saw a 70 percent decrease in air freight shipments in October but sea freight shipments were up about 10 or 15 percent, Fox said. Smaller air freight shipments can be combined into a large sea freight shipment.