L.A.-Long Beach container volume up 11% in 2006

L.A.-Long Beach container volume up 11% in 2006 Combined box volume at the South California ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, North America's busiest port complex, increased 11 percent in 2006 to 15.76 million TEUs, up from 14.19 million TEUs in 2005.
   The Port of Los Angeles showed the largest gain of the two ports, increasing its total container throughput 13.2 percent to 8.47 million TEUs, while the Port of Long Beach recorded a 8.7 percent jump to 7.29 million TEUs.
   Los Angeles' inbound loaded TEUs increased 8 percent to 4.41 million TEUs in 2006 with inbound loaded traffic at Long Beach up 11.2 percent to 3.72 million TEUs. Total inbound loaded TEUs for both ports increased 9.5 percent to 8.13 million TEUs.
   Outbound loaded traffic at Los Angeles jumped 21.5 percent to 1.42 million TEUs. Long Beach increased its outbound loaded traffic 5.7 percent to 1.29 million TEUs. The ports' combined outbound traffic of full containers rose 13.5 percent to 2.71 million TEUs.
   Empty box traffic handled at Los Angeles increased 8.5 percent to 2.64 million TEUs. Long Beach saw its number of empty containers rise 6.4 percent to 2.28 million TEUs.
   The proportion of empty containers overall for the two major ports decreased to 31.2 percent in 2006 from 32.2 percent in 2005.