The good times continue to roll at the Port of Long Beach while the Port of Los Angeles is still struggling to recover from last year’s record tie-ups, port figures released this week show.

Loaded container traffic rose 2.4 percent at the Port of Long Beach in November to 412,212 cargo units from October levels and 4 percent from November 2004, led by a surge in exports.

Year-to-date, loaded container traffic at the Long Beach port is up nearly 17 percent to 4.2 million cargo units from the first 11 months of 2004. Imports have risen 14.4 percent so far this year, while exports have jumped 23 percent.

A weak dollar and high demand for basic commodities in Asia are the major reasons for the export explosion. The port’s ability to handle super-sized container vessels has boosted both imports and exports.

Meanwhile, loaded container counts at the Port of Los Angeles in November plunged 9.2 percent to 423,358 cargo units from October levels and were off 0.7 percent from November 2004 levels.

Year-to-date, loaded container traffic at the Los Angeles port stood at 4.7 million cargo units, down 1.6 percent from the first 11 months of 2004. Imports fell 2.8 percent while exports rose 2.6 percent.

These figures show that the Port of Los Angeles is still feeling the effects of congestion last year that tied up ships outside the docks for up to two weeks. Many shippers have diverted cargo to other West Coast ports like Seattle-Tacoma and Oakland, both of which have seen sharp increases in container traffic this year.

Both ports continued to see increases in empty container traffic, indicating that imports are still swamping exports. Year-to-date, there has been a 23 percent leap in empty containers handled at the Port of Long Beach and an 8 percent rise in empties at the Port of Los Angeles.