L.A.-Long Beach box volume down 8.5% in January

L.A.-Long Beach box volume down 8.5% in January The California ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach posted an 8.5 percent drop in their combined container throughput for January to 1.17 million TEUs, compared to 1.28 million TEUs in the first month of 2007.
   The Port of Los Angeles handled 652,236 TEUs this January, down 5.7 percent from 691,602 TEUs last year. Los Angeles’ monthly loaded inbound traffic dipped 4.6 percent to 343,529 TEUs, while loaded exports jumped 18.9 percent to 147,950 TEUs. Total empty containers handled at Los Angeles declined 22.3 percent to 160,757 TEUs.
   Throughput at the Port of Long Beach in January was 521,342 TEUs, down 11.9 percent from 591,469 TEUs in the same month in 2007. Loaded imports dropped 13.8 percent to 261,543 TEUs with outbound loaded containers up 12.4 percent to 121,701 TEUs. Long Beach empties were down 23.2 percent to 138,098 TEUs.
   In 2007 the two ports handled 0.6 percent fewer boxes compared to 2006, reaching a total of 15.66 million TEUs.