London — Container imports into the port of Los Angeles in July rose year on year, whilst imports to Long Beach fell over the same period, as they have done for the past three months, port data showed.

Loaded imports to Los Angeles in July rose 8.7% on the year to 476,438 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), up from the 396,307 TEUs in June.

Imports to Long Beach fell 9.9% year on year to 313,350 TEUs but remained slightly below the 331,617 TEUs recorded in June.

The drop in Long Beach imports offset some of the increase in Los Angeles, though cumulative imports in July still rose, to 789,788 TEUs, from 785,901 TEUs in July 2018, a 0.5% increase.

Cumulative exports from the two ports also fell over the period, by 5.1% to 272,994 TEUs.

The volumes into the ports in June and July had been expected to fall further, as indeed they did along with May's lower volumes, following the imposition of trade tariffs by the US on goods from China.

That has since seen further escalation expected to leave much of the second half of 2019 in a bearish position.

Previously there had been some positive sentiment for carriers on the horizon as the market began to move into peak demand season.

That saw rates rise though that was short-lived with extra loaders on trans-Pacific lanes leaving a supply glut that drove prices down further.

"There are quite a few extra loaders out there too. It is funny that once someone tries to put out extra loaders to capitalize on higher rates, others aggressively reduce their rates to minimize the gains of their competitors and taking down the market as a whole," a market source said.

--George Griffiths, george.griffiths@spglobal.com

--Edited by Dan Lalor, daniel.lalor@spglobal.com