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LA, Longbeach January cargo down
2009/2/20
January loaded oceangoing cargoes at the side-by-side ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach fell 18.7 percent from the previous January.
The two Southern California ports, the two busiest in the United States, handle more than 40 percent of imported consumer goods, Reuters reported.
The two ports showed inbound cargoes down 14.4 percent and outbound cargoes down 28.4 percent in January 2009 from January 2008.
Container traffic at the two ports is an indicator of retail activity. Most of the imported consumer goods made in China and other Asian countries go through the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports.
First-half 2009 traffic at 11 US and two Canadian ports is forecast to fall 11.8 percent, according to a report issued earlier this month by the National Retail Federation and consultancy IHS Global Insight,
Port traffic is also an indication of demand for diesel fuel, which accounts for about two-thirds of overall US distillate fuel use. Distillate fuel also includes jet fuel and home heating oil. Almost all of US diesel use is tied to goods and service deliveries by truck.
Los Angeles showed January loaded inbound cargo at 317,493 TEU, down 7.6 percent from 343,529 TEU a year ago.
Long Beach reported January loaded inbound cargo totalled 200,588 TEUs, down 23.3 percent from 261,543 TEUs in January 2008.
Outbound cargoes from Los Angeles were 104,503 TEU, down 29.4 percent from 147,950 TEU in January 2008.
Outbound cargoes from Long Beach numbered 88,510 TEUs, down 27.3 percent from 121,701 TEUs a year ago.
Furthermore, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have begun to impose a $35 fee on cargo containers entering or leaving the ports in a bid to help subsidize the replacement of thousands of polluting trucks.
The fee is expected to raise about one million dollars a day, or about one billion dollars over the next few years, at both ports to finance 80 percent of the cost to replace many of the 17,000 trucks that are a leading source of air pollution in the region.
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2009/2/20