January Cargo Tallies Set Records at Regional Ports

0

January Cargo Tallies Set Records at Regional Ports

By DAVID GREENBERG

Staff Reporter

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach processed record amounts of container cargo during January, as retailers hustled to keep their shelves stocked after a busier-than-expected second half of 2003.

Importers also strove to get as much merchandise into the U.S. before the Jan. 21 start of the Chinese New Year, when manufacturers in Asian countries shut down for two weeks.

“The economy rebounded in the second half of last year,” said Art Wong, spokesman for the Port of Long Beach. “Consumers in particular bought more than retailers had expected. So this winter, you are seeing importers order more to replenish their inventories.”

Long Beach moved 376,956 TEUs, or 20-foot equivalent units, in January, a 12.7 percent increase over the 334,346 TEUs recorded during the year-earlier period.

Los Angeles handled 616,087 TEUs, up 18.8 percent from the 518,538 TEUs it moved during January 2003.

The traffic counts broke both ports’ previous January records. In 2001, Long Beach registered 354,441 TEUs, and Los Angeles logged 518,538 TEUs last year.

The positive numbers were tempered by the Feb. 24 announcement that the Hamburg Sud steamship line will cancel one of its two weekly calls from Asia to Long Beach and divert that vessel directly to Latin American ports to avoid the U.S. Customs Service’s 24-hour notice rule. The rule, instituted last year, requires incoming carriers to file all cargo information origin, destination, type with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency (formerly the Customs Service) one full day prior to departure from a foreign port. This prevents shippers from making last-minute changes to their loads.

No posts to display