L.A. Port Tops Long Beach for Highest January Volume

For the first time in nearly five years, the Port of Los Angeles beat the Port of Long Beach, considered the nation’s busiest foreign-trade harbor, in monthly cargo volume, port officials said Thursday.

In January, the Port of Los Angeles handled more than 358,000 20-foot cargo containers, while neighboring Long Beach moved just over 339,000, despite taking in record imports. Long Beach reported its January figures Thursday, while Los Angeles released its numbers last week.

Officials at the Port of Los Angeles said two new freighter lines that began calling on the port in December--China Shipping Container Line and Norasia Shipping Service--helped fuel the surge in cargo volume.

Matt Plezia, a trade analyst with the Port of Long Beach, said Los Angeles’ January cargo surge could be an aberration and not necessarily the start of a trend in container supremacy. “To say either way at this point would be speculation,” he said.

Record January container volume at Los Angeles came at a time when Long Beach took in nearly 178,000 import containers--itself a record for the month, and just over 80,000 export containers, which beat Los Angeles exports and was the Long Beach facility’s best January for outbound cargo in four years.