Container volumes down 29 percent at Port of Los Angeles

Ships stacking up at anchorages, off coast, and slowly steaming across the Pacific.    The Port of Los Angeles said that its cargo volumes, like those of Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma, were sharply down in the month of January.
   At the monthly meeting of the port’s commissioners Thursday, Gene Seroka, the executive director of the Port of Los Angeles reported that the preliminary tally is that 487,000 TEUs of containerized cargo moved through the port in January, 29 percent less than the 686,000 TEUs that moved through the port in January 2014. Seroka said even if the numbers are revised upward they will still be below 500,000 TEUs.
   The Marine Exchange of Southern California said that as of 7 a.m. on Friday there were 27 ships at anchor outside the port, three less than yesterday. This includes 21 containerships.
   Seroka said Thursday that there were more ships outside the 200 mile environmental control area off the coast of California, or steaming slowly eastward across the Pacific from Asia towards Los Angeles. He said there are also ships off the coast of Ensenada, Mexico
   At berth in the port on Thursday were 27 ships, including 18 containerships and Seroka said terminals and yards at the port were flush with empty and export containers, as the Union Pacific and BNSF railroads have begun to open the flow of those types of containers into Los Angeles.
   “Tonight we have a federally mandated deadline on those negotiations directly from the White House. Secretary of Labor Tom Perez will report back to the President this evening on those labor discussions. If no agreement is reached, both sides will be asked to go to Washington for meetings next Tuesday. We are at a critical juncture in these negotiations and the ongoing continuity of the supply chain and the direct impact here at the Port of Los Angeles and with respect to the nation’s economy.”
   Seroka noted that 40 percent of all imported goods come through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and 70 percent of the business along the West Coast of the United States come though the two ports on San Pedro Bay.
   “I can’t underscore enough how important today is to the ongoing viability of the nation’s economy and what this port wants to do in the future,” said Seroka.