L.A., Long Beach port traffic drops in May
Traffic at the nation’s busiest seaport complex showed another steep drop in May compared with the same month in 2008, although some economists say the ports could begin to recover late this year.
Last month, container imports at the Port of Los Angeles, the nation’s busiest, were down about 18%. Exports from the port were down 7.1% for the month, dropping by the equivalent of about 150,000 cargo containers.
Through May, imports to the port were down 17.7% to about 1.4 million containers, while exports were down 15.5% compared with the same period in 2008.
At the Port of Long Beach, No. 2 in the U.S., container imports fell 22% in May. Exports fell 23.8%. For the year, Long Beach imports were off 27.4% and exports were down 29.3%.
Despite the steep drops, Long Beach port spokesman Art Wong said, exports in May were up slightly from monthly totals late last year.
“Hopefully, it means these are raw materials going out to be used to build imported goods for us,” Wong said.
If there was any improvement for employment on the docks, it was hard to find. At two ports that required the help of hundreds of so-called casuals, or part-time dockworkers, to help load and unload cargo during the boom years, they were still finding no work in May.
John Husing, an economist who tracks the goods-movement industry in the Inland Empire, said that the recovery had yet to begin there. Unemployment in the Inland Empire was still running at 12.6%, which was second in severity only to Detroit’s 14% among urban areas, Husing said.
“I live near the main line of the old Southern Pacific railroad track that Union Pacific uses now,” said Husing, referring to one of the two transcontinental railroads that haul cargo to and from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
“I’m seeing far fewer trains,” Husing said.
Paul Bingham, managing director of the global trade and transportation group IHS Global Insight of Lexington, Mass., said the ports would not see year-over-year improvements in import and export numbers until late this year. IHS tracks cargo movement to and from North America’s busiest ports on behalf of the National Retail Federation.
“We’re not in the rebound yet, but that’s not new bad news,” Bingham said. “From November through April, we still think consumers and businesses will be spending more than they did last year.”
One local firm that does a lot of port business is seeing a slight improvement.
Ventura Transfer Co. in Long Beach has been in the bulk-products hauling business since the 1860s. Its work includes transporting liquid cargo such as fuel additives, cleaning agents and solvents, and dry cargo such as various kinds of plastics, as well as some hazardous cargo.
“Our business, from the end of last year to early this year, was always flat or dropping. In the last few weeks, we have had some good days and some good weeks,” said Randy Clifford, the company’s chairman. “We’re not getting new bites yet, but we’re getting more nibbles, more calls.”
But Clifford said that the little bit of improvement that the company had seen felt tenuous at best.
“Whether it’s sustainable or not is very hard to say,” he said.
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