Long Beach container volumes climbing in early 2016

March volumes this year were lower at the Port of Long Beach, but the first quarter was the best since 2007.    The Port of Long Beach said it handled 464,855 TEUs in March, 26.2 percent fewer when compared to March 2015, when volumes spiked following the tentative contract agreement on Feb. 20, 2015 between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and its employers.
   As soon as the tentative agreement was reached last year, terminals up and down the West Coast kicked into high gear to try and reduce the backlog of cargo at the port and volumes soared.
   The comparison with last March was also distorted by the timing of Lunar New Year this year, Feb. 8. Many factories in East Asia shut down for one to two weeks for the holiday and ships arriving on the West Coast several weeks later have less cargo.
   For the first three months of the 2016, Long Beach handled 3.4 million TEUs, a 6.1 percent increase over the same 2015 period, and the port’s best first quarter since 2007.