Port of Los Angeles expects container volumes to decline as ships divert

New York — The Port of Los Angeles expects total container volumes to decline in the months ahead as more ships are diverted to other West Coast North American ports.

January throughput was 835,516 twenty-foot equivalent units, up 3.6% from the same month last year, the Port of Los Angeles' executive director Gene Seroka said.

But total volumes are expected to decline to around 730,000 TEUs in February and 775,000 TEUs in March as some ships are diverted to other ports on the West Coast such as Oakland, Seroka said.

"It's not a popular decision," Seroka said. "I'm not an individual that wants to turn a pound of freight away from our port, but we have to be realistic."

The port is experiencing a growing queue of anchored vessels amid a months-long surge in US import volumes from Asia that has overwhelmed a workforce limited by the coronavirus pandemic.

There were 34 containerships at anchor in the San Pedro Bay near the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Feb. 17, with another 27 containerships being worked on in two ports, according to cFlow, Platts trade-flow software.

"We are still processing cargo at record numbers," Seroka said. "If we stopped all shipments right now, we'd still have about a month's worth of work from those ships at anchor and trying to get them through the system."

Total loaded imports in January were 437,609 TEUs, an increase of 5.5% from the same month last year. But loaded exports fell by 19.5% year on year to 119,327 TEUs in January as shipowners prioritized the repositioning of empty containers for another round of imports.