PORT OF LONG BEACH CONTAINER TRAFFIC DOWN 7.5%

PORT OF LONG BEACH CONTAINER TRAFFIC DOWN 7.5%    The Port of Long Beach said container traffic in July dipped 7.5 percent to 379,032 TEUs, due to the general global economic slowdown.
   Outbound container traffic at the port decreased to 77,956 TEUs in July, 10.3 percent lower than the same period of the year before. Inbound container traffic fell 7.4 percent to 208,179 TEUs.
   For the first seven months of 2001, container traffic at the port was about 2.5 million TEUs, down 3.1 percent from the year-earlier period. Outbound container traffic was down 11 percent to 551,026 TEUs. Inbound traffic fell 1.9 percent, to about 1.4 million TEUs.
   Long Beach handled 73,823 TEUs less in July than the neighboring Port of Los Angeles. For the year to date, Los Angeles has handled 331,363 TEUs more than Long Beach.