Port of Long Beach container volumes increase 43.6% on year in April: port

Container throughput at the Port of Long Beach, California, in April eased back from an all-time high in the previous month but maintained their recovery with 43.6% volume growth over April 2020, the port said on May 12.

The Port of Long Beach had its busiest April on record, handling 746,199 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), but that total was down 11.2% from March as port congestion and growing waiting times to berth caused more ships to divert to other US gateways.

Loaded import volumes in April increased 44.8% year on year, while loaded exports were up 21% from April 2020, when international trade was severely curtailed by the global coronavirus outbreak.

"We are in the midst of our best trade periods in port history, but we cannot forget that the national economy remains in recovery mode," Long Beach Harbor Commission President Frank Colonna said. "We are closely collaborating with our industry stakeholders to handle the resurgence of cargo we're experiencing after the dramatic declines we saw last year due to COVID-19."

April was the 10th consecutive month that total volumes at the Port of Long Beach broke records for a particular month amid a historic cargo surge that started in July 2020.

"The rise in online consumer spending continued to squeeze the national supply chain with loaded vessels, increased dwell times and shrinking capacity," the port said.

Platts Container Rate 13 – North Asia to West Coast North America – was assessed on May 12 at $4,700/FEU, an increase of 185% from the year-ago date as demand greatly exceeded carrying capacity.

The Port of Long Beach is the second-busiest container gateway in the US after the adjacent Port of Los Angeles. The combined complex handled 4.97 million TEUs in the first quarter of 2021, up 34.9% from January-March 2020.