Busy times in Long Beach
The port of Long Beach on the US West Coast witnessed the best September of its 108-year history. In total, almost 707,000 teu were handled in September, slightly more (+0.8%) than during the same month a year ago. While imports were down by 0.7% to 355,000 teu, exports more than compensated this gap with a rise of 1.4% to more than 123,000 teu.
The volume of empty containers moving out of the United States to be reused in the global supply chain rose by 2.9% to 229,000 teu. “We saw increased ship calls in September,” said port of Long Beach executive director Mario Cordero.
Long Beach harbour commission president Bonnie Lowenthal added: "The port of Long Beach is going to have one of its busiest years ever, despite the challenges related to the trade war,” said Lowenthal. During Q3/ 2019, the port handled 1,993,000 teu. The pace was 3.7% down from Q3/2018. By September, cargo volumes had decreased by 5.7%, compared to the first nine months of 2018. (fd)