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Imports at Los Angeles Port remained above pre-pandemic levels in the first five month of 2024, despite a slight decline in May from a year earlier.
At a June 12 press conference, Port of L.A. executive director Gene Seroka stated that “cargo is down just a little because we had such large numbers a year before.”
He said that the rush of cargo last year coincided with “rumblings” about a breaking point between West Coast dockworkers’ employers and their unions, which caused importers to bring in goods early.
The first five months of this year saw an 18% increase in container volumes at the busiest U.S. port compared to 2023.
May cargo volume is strong and consistent: The Port of Los Angeles handled 752,893 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units in May 2024. Although this represents a slight decline of 3% over May 2023, the overall cargo volume is still 18% ahead. https://t.co/rWQZ3kcVuW pic.twitter.com/qWNK9KGiuk — Port of Los Angeles (@PortofLA) June 12, 2024
The Port of L.A. handled 390,663 20 foot-equivalent units of imported containerized goods last month, compared to the 409,150 in May of the previous year. Empty containers were down by almost 12%. The port handled 125.963 exported containers that were loaded, up 23.8% compared to the same period in last year.
Seroka expects that the summer will continue to bring strong volumes of trade to the port because he hasn’t seen any deterioration in the manufacturing and retail sectors or canceled shippings from Asia.
However, there is a risk in the global supply chains. Spot freight rates have risen due to congestion along trade routes. Talks between dockworkers and their employers at ports from Boston up to Houston are becoming increasingly difficult.
Seroka said cargo volume at the Port of L.A. hasn’t been much affected so far by disruptions such as the attacks on vessels by Houthi militants in the Red Sea or the International Longshoremen’s Association’s threats to strike should there be no deal reached at the other ports before the deadline of Sept. 30.
Seroka said that “people on the import and exported side have told me they’ve moved fractional amounts from their allocations to come over to Los Angeles to hedge.” “Nothing big, no big surge.”
a href=”https://t.co/ahLMgA9AV1″>https://t.co/ahLMgA9AV1/a> a href=”https://t.co/CG2nGeQhhv”>pic.twitter.com/CG2nGeQhhv/a> — WWU Center for Economic and Business Research (@PugetSoundEF) – ‘J https://t.co/ahLMgA9AV1 pic.twitter.com/CG2nGeQhhv — WWU Center for Economic and Business Research (@PugetSoundEF) June 11, 2024
According to a forecast released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates earlier this week, the monthly imports into U.S. container port are expected to hit their highest level in almost two years this summer.
Jared Bernstein of the Council of Economic Advisers, who attended the port’s news conference, said that the White House is keeping a close eye on the dockworker talks because of their potential impact on the economic situation, but from afar.
Bernstein said that President Joe Biden always supports collective bargaining, but also gives the parties the room they need at this stage of negotiations. “We’ve always made it a point to stay out of their way, and we encourage them negotiate in good faith,” said Bernstein.
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