Port of Los Angeles sets Q1 container volume record

Box volumes at the Southern California port grew by double digits in the first quarter, but comparisons to last year are colored by the one-time West Coast labor disruption in early 2015.    Container volumes at the Port of Los Angeles plummeted 22.6 percent in March to 612,863 TEUS, but the port still recorded the busiest first quarter in its 109-year history, handling more than 2 million TEUs during the first three months of the year.
   Year-to-date, volumes is up 11.3 percent to 2.03 million TEUs compared to the same period a year ago.
   The figures are hugely skewed by the contract dispute between dockworkers and private terminal operators that led to a work slowdown in 2015. The resulting gridlock left containers stranded for weeks in terminals until the dispute was resolved in late February. Many shippers diverted cargo to shipping lines with all-water service to the East Coast and Gulf or used air cargo to move goods until the backlog was eliminated in the early summer.
   Los Angeles and Long Beach both experienced huge declines in volume for January and February 2015, and then a spike in April and May as waiting vessels were able to discharge cargo and Asian exporters began using the trans-Pacific trade lane again.
   The Los Angeles port authority said March imports decreased by a third to 287,231 TEUS compared to the previous year. Exports increased 9.5 percent to 159,362 TEUs and empty container traffic dropped 23 percent to 166,269 TEUs. 
   The port authority said the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin and the Maersk Edmonton, the two largest container ships currently calling North America, are scheduled to return to Los Angeles concurrently next week. The Port of Los Angeles has taken a series of steps in the past year to return operations to normal, and even improve cargo handling efficiency from levels before the labor disruption.