Port of Los Angeles makes record-breaking start to the year

20 Feb 2012 - Cargo volumes and throughput, Ports, Los Angeles / Long Beach

• Los Angeles Port breaks January record for container volumes

• Busiest US port handled 698,715 TEU last month

The Port of Los Angeles has announced that it handled more containers last month than in any other January in its history.

The 698,715 TEU that passed through the Californian facility was more than all but eight US ports would usually expect to move during the entire year.

Loaded imports increased 5.25 percent compared to last January 2011 while exports increased by 5.9 percent.

January’s performance broke the busiest US port’s previous record of 691,602 TEU achieved during the height of the global economic boom five years ago.

“This past month took us a little bit by surprise,” Katherine McDermott, Deputy Executive Director for business development at the Port of Los Angeles, told the IFW.

“It’s obviously a very nice surprise. We had been forecasting conservatively for a 2 to 3 percent increase in cargo volumes in 2012.”

However, McDermott did note that economic uncertainties make it difficult to forecast whether the strong figures recorded in January will continue throughout the year.

Container volumes recorded at Los Angeles were helped in part by both the success of attracting business from overseas and a weak US dollar that made goods and products more affordable to foreign customers, according to the IFW.

In 2011, Los Angeles handled 7,940,511 TEUs compared to 7,831,902 TEUs in 2010.