With just under one month left in 2017, San Pedro Bay ports have experienced growth in their container volumes.
The Port of Long Beach (POLB) said it has already exceeded the cargo total for all of last year and will handle more than seven million containers for the only fourth time in its 106-year history.
Through the first 11 months of the year, shippers have sent 6,847,589 TEUs across the port’s docks, a 10 percent rise. The port handled 6,775,171 TEUs in 2016.
In addition, a total of 612,659 TEUs was moved through Long Beach in November 2017, an increase of 14.7 percent over the same month a year ago.
“US consumers are confident and the economy has been strong. Retailers have been stocking goods as a result and we are nearing cargo levels we have not seen since before the 2008 recession,” Lou Anne Bynum, Long Beach Harbor Commission President , commented.
What is more, eleven months through 2017, volumes are up 6.3 percent at the Port of Los Angeles. The port recorded 8,563,982 TEUs in the first eleven months of this year, compared to 8,060,246 TEU seen in the same period a year earlier. Last year, the port handled a record-breaking 8.8 million TEUs.
The Port of Los Angeles said it is on track to be the first Western Hemisphere port to exceed 9 million TEUs in a calendar year.
The port moved 924,225 TEUs in November, the most containerized monthly cargo the port has processed during its 110-year history.
“Four vessels calling in Los Angeles each discharged and loaded more than 23,000 TEUs in November, all close to October’s 24,308 TEU record set last month in Los Angeles,” Gene Seroka, Port of Los Angeles Executive Director, said.