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LA, Long Beach February port cargo drops
2009/3/19
February loaded oceangoing cargoes at the side-by-side ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach fell 36.6 percent from the previous February, Reuters reported.
The slowdown for February is much more pronounced than it was in January, when the year-on-year decrease in cargo traffic at the two Southern California ports was 18.7 percent.
The ports are the two busiest in the United States, handling more than 40 percent of imported consumer goods.
The two ports showed inbound cargoes down 38.8 percent and outbound cargoes down 32.2 percent in February 2009 from February 2008.
The traffic fell as "consumer sales are down due to high unemployment rates," according to the Port of Los Angeles'' report, which was issued last week.
The US unemployment rate rose to 8.1 percent in February, its highest level in a quarter century. A Reuters poll of economists issued last week forecast the US jobless rate will reach 9.6 percent in early 2010 before receding.
The Long Beach report showed inbound cargo for February down a whopping 43.3 percent.
"Over the last 20-something years, we haven''t had too many declines and surely not on the order we are seeing now," said port spokesman Art Wong.
In the past 20 years, the two ports have seen traffic rising as Asian imports, mainly from China, increased their share of US consumer goods sold.
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.
Across North America, March is forecast to show a decline of 7.6 percent in shipping traffic from March 2008.
The IHS report expected first-half 2009 shipping volume to be down 12.2 percent from the first half of 2008. It also showed that January was the 19th straight month of year-on-year declines for shipping traffic.
The IHS report gives results and makes forecasts for traffic at 11 US and two Canadian ports.
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 US diesel use is tied to goods and service deliveries by truck.
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2009/3/19