Today we got August port data from the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach, which together account for 40% of total US inbound port traffic. The headline numbers were encouraging up 25% and 24% respectively year over year. From the Port of Long Beach:
2010 2009 %Change
Loaded Inbound 311,240 249,920 +24.5%
Loaded Outbound 126,039 130,623 -3.5%
Empties 173,723 112,796 +54.0%
TOTAL (T.E.U.) 611,002 493,339 +23.9%
From the Port of Los Angeles:
2010 2009 %Change
Loaded Inbound 399,150 323,269 +23%
Loaded Outbound 147,608 150,341 -1.82%
Empties 217,077 138,610 +56%
TOTAL (T.E.E.) 763,837 612,581 +25%
You can see that the data is somewhat misleading because it includes empty containers which surged in August, up 54% in Long Beach and 56% in Los Angeles. Ex-empty containers port volume growth was still positive, but not as high as the headline number would suggest. The reason given for the surge in empty container volumes was that shippers moved containers to Asia to address capacity shortages. One other thing of note was the decrease in loaded outbound containers which suggests that US exports probably weakened in August.
Black Swan Insights
At least theirs some good news now and than.
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