Long Beach nears 6 million TEUs for 2004

Long Beach nears 6 million TEUs for 2004    Container traffic at the port of Long Beach, the second-largest port in the United States, grew 24.1 percent last year, to 5.8 million TEUs, a new record for annual box traffic.
   Long Beach reported an increase of 24 percent in imports for 2004, to 3 million TEUs, while exports climbed 11.4 percent to 1 million. Empty containers jumped 32.7 percent last year, to 1.8 million TEUs.
   The port of Long Beach finished the year with another monthly record in container traffic for December, when it handled 551,339 TEUs up 35.8 percent from December 2003.
   Inbound container traffic rose 28.3 percent year-on-year to 269,495 TEUs in December. Outbound box volume increased 11.2 percent to 93,377 TEUs. The port reported a massive 68.3-percent rise in the number of empty containers to 188,467 TEUs for December.
   The port of Los Angeles has not yet reported its December statistics.