Port of Long Beach container volumes see slight bump in May

With cargo volumes near all-time peak levels, May 2016 still qualified as the second-busiest May in the Southern California port’s 105-year history.    The Port of Long Beach it handled 640,566 TEUs in May, less than one percent (0.8 percent) more than in the same month last year, according to recent data from the port authority.
   With cargo volumes near all-time peak levels, May still qualified as the second-busiest May in the Southern California port’s 105-year history.
   Inbound containers stood at 330,639 TEUs, up 1 percent; outbound containers at 138,594 TEUs, up 2 percent; and empty containers were 171,333 TEUs, down 0.4 percent.
   In the first five months of the year, volumes at the Port of Long Beach have grown 1.4 percent to 2.68 million TEUs compared with the same 2015 period. 
   The port noted that at this time a year ago, “docks were still busily catching up after several months of congestion” that built up during the contentious contract negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and its employers.
    Long Beach’s volumes “are in line with trends observed by the National Retail Federation (NRF), which reports that inventories remain high for U.S. stores and warehouses, muting demand for oceangoing trade,” the port said.
   “The unusual patterns seen last year in the aftermath of the West Coast ports slowdown are continuing to make valid year-over-year comparisons difficult,” NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said last week. “Retailers are balancing imports with existing inventories but consumers can expect to see plenty of merchandise on the shelves for both back-to-school and the holidays.”
   Releasing its monthly Global Port Tracker report prepared for the NRF, Hackett Associates said “import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to be mostly down through the summer but should see a significant uptick just before the winter holiday season.”
   “Our port models are projecting weak imports in volume terms, not to be confused with the dollar value,” said Hackett Associates Founder Ben Hackett. “Inventories remain very high, pointing to an overstocked situation that will depress the volume of imports in the coming peak season. Unless inventories drop through further increased consumer spending, import growth will remain sparse.” 
   Port Tracker estimates that in the first half of 2016 the ports whose volumes it tallies are expected to import a total of 8.9 million TEUs, up 0.3 percent from the same period in 2015. Those ports are Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle, Tacoma, New York/New Jersey, Hampton Roads, Charleston, Savannah, Port Everglades, Miami and Houston.
  (An earlier version of this story conflated the fiscal year-to-date totals in Long Beach with the calendar year totals)