Port of Long Beach’s box volumes feel the pinch from Hanjin bankruptcy

The Southern California port handled 581,808 TEUs in October, down 6.2 percent from a year prior.    The Port of Long Beach’s October box volumes fell 6.2 percent year-over-year  to 581,808 TEUs, resulting from the exceptionally strong throughput results last October and a decline in box volumes after Hanjin Shipping declared bankruptcy, the port said.
   Hanjin, which filed for bankruptcy at the end of August, accounted for about 12.3 percent of the port’s total containerized volumes.
   The Port of Long Beach’s loaded exports totaled 136,770 TEUs in October, while the port’s loaded imports stood at 296,711 TEUs, year-over-year declines of 1.2 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively. Empty container volumes at the port during the month tumbled 13.8 percent from last October to 158,327 TEUs.
   Overall, through the first 10 months of 2016, total container volumes at the port fell 4.8 percent from the corresponding period in 2015.
   Looking ahead, the port will be frequented by a new transpacific container service, 2M Alliance’s new TP3/Sequoia loop, which is scheduled to commence operations Dec. 9 from Chiwan. The loop will deploy five, 4,500-TEU vessels, according to a Maersk spokesperson.
   Overall, the Port of Long Beach is frequented by 20 liner services, 15 of which are fully cellular container services, according to BlueWater Reporting’s Port Dashboard tool.