Port of Long Beach handles record container volume in July as rates escalate

Houston — The Port of Long Beach in California recorded its highest ever monthly container volume in July, as ship owners worked through a backload of cargoes created by cancelled voyages earlier this year.

The port handled 753,081 twenty-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, in July, up by 21% from the same month last year. It was the busiest month in the port's 109-year history and coincided with an increase in trans-Pacific container rates to multi-year highs.

Loaded imports last month were up by 20% on the year to 376,807 TEUs, while loaded exports rose by 24% to 138,602 TEUs over the same period. The volume of empty containers being repositioned in Asia increased by 21% on the year to 237,672 TEUs in July.

"It was a good month, a bright spot, in the midst of the devastating effects of the coronavirus on the economy," said Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero in a statement on Aug. 14.

Despite the record container volume in July, total throughput in January-July 2020 remained 2.8% lower from the same seven-month period last year.

Container ship owners cancelled numerous sailing in the second quarter of the year as the worst impacts of the coronavirus pandemic affected manufacturers in North Asia. Carrying capacity continues to recover, but the remaining shortage has lifted spot container rates to the highest level in at least three years.

Platts Container Rate 13 -- North Asia to West Coast North America –- rose to $3,450 per forty-foot equivalent unit on Aug. 17, up from $1,450/FEU one year ago.

The Port of Los Angeles, which is adjacent to the Port of Long Beach in the San Pedro Bay, also recorded its highest monthly container volume in July with 856,389 TEUs, but that throughput was 6.1% lower from the same month in 2019.