The Port of Long Beach opened 2018 with a bang. The port had a record-breaking 2017, with cargo volumes up 11% for the year. Now, January 2018 has broken all cargo volume records, with an increase of 13% over January 2017. This is the first time in Port of Long Beach history that the port has moved more than 600,000 TEUs of containers in the month of January.
“Last year was a good year when everyone was having a good year. Still, our cargo growth of more than 11 percent in 2017 outpaced our competitors,” Lee Peterson of the Port of Long Beach tells GlobeSt.com. “Our volume in January 2018 had to do with a combination of factors—the recovery last year, Lunar New Year and changes in patterns to spread cargo across the year, even in the winter, rather than concentrate on a single peak season.”
Peterson says that the boost in activity is likely due to cargo deliveries ahead of Lunar New Year, which is a historically slow period for the Port of Long Beach. “Cargo owners are rushing to send their goods to U.S. markets ahead of Lunar New Year,” he says. “We expect a busy February as well, since this year's holiday is in the middle of the month, and it takes about 10 to 14 days for ships to reach North America.”
Recently, this has become a trend for the month of January. “January has been a busy month for us in recent years. It wasn't always,” explains Peterson. “Part of that is Lunar New Year, but we've seen a trend toward moving a steady amount of cargo throughout the year. It's more efficient for ocean carriers, and you don't need to hire and layoff truckers and warehouse workers from month to month. There isn't much of a peak anymore, and not as much of a winter dip.”
While this could be a highly active period that will balance out an inactive period Lunar new Year, it is also a good indicator of the port's expected performance of the year. “The activity we see at the Port of Long Beach is an indicator of where the economy is and where it's going. Economists have predicted the U.S. economy will grow 2.7 percent in 2018,” says Peterson. “The National Retail Federation's Global Port Tracker predicted import growth of 4.9% during the first half of the year. We expect our traffic to be in line with forecasts like these.”
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Kelsi Maree Borland
