Los Angeles, Long Beach inbound volumes up 8% in September

Los Angeles, Long Beach inbound volumes up 8% in September    The combined number of containers discharged at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach rose by 8 percent to 548,383 TEUs in September, the first month that gives an indication of the strength of the peak transpacific shipping season.
   Both ports shared in the relatively modest increase in volume, with Los Angeles handling 342,068 loaded inbound TEUs, up 7 percent on September of last year, and Long Beach moving 9 percent more loaded inbound boxes, amounting to 206,315 TEUs.
   The 8-percent rise in loaded inbound TEUs discharged in September in Los Angeles and Long Beach follows poor figures for August, when the ports’ combined inbound traffic decreased marginally, to about 561,300 TEUs,
   Most inbound containers at the South Californian ports come from Asia.
   A total of 149,784 TEUs of loaded outbound containers was shipped from the two ports in September, 4 percent more than the 143,427-TEU volume of September 2002.
   While loaded outbound box volume dropped by 6 percent in Los Angeles over the same period, to 83,858 TEUs, outbound traffic from Long Beach soared by 22 percent, to 65,926 TEUs.
   The port of Los Angeles also reported a 10 percent jump in the number of empty TEUs handled in September, to 196,803 TEUs.
   The total traffic moved by Los Angeles in September amounted to 622,729 TEUs, 6 percent more than a year ago. Long Beach saw its total volume expand by 12 percent in September, to 379,811 TEUs. The ports’ combined traffic for the same month was 1 million TEUs, up 8 percent on the 929,581-TEU combined figure for September 2002.