Shipping Containers-Gioia Tauro-12.11.08
Shipping containers are stacked up at the Port of Gioia Tauro in Italy last Nov. 8. Reuters

Containerized cargo volume at the two busiest ports in the U.S. headed in different directions last month on a year-over-year basis, as it fell 1.48 percent at No. 1 Los Angeles and rose 7.6 percent at No. 2 Long Beach, according to the ports. A similar divergence is apparent in the data for the first seven months of the year, with Los Angeles down 6.54 percent and Long Beach up 13.2 percent.

In July, about 715,640 20-foot equivalent container units moved through Los Angeles and about 562,166 TEUs moved through Long Beach, the ports reported. In the first seven months of the year, the comparable figures were around 4,426,599 TEUs for Los Angeles and around 3,784,624 TEUs for Long Beach.

Port activity is considered a helpful indicator in terms of gauging the country’s exports, imports and overall economic performance.

All of last year, Los Angeles handled about 8,077,71 TEUs and Long Beach handled about 6,045,662 TEUs, according to the American Association of Port Authorities. As a result, the comparatively small downtick in volume at the former (and larger) port and the comparatively large uptick in volume at the latter (and smaller) port is pretty close to a wash for the national economy, less so for July and more so for the first seven months of the year.

On an aggregated basis, the containerized cargo volume at the two ports rose 2.32 percent in July year over year and 1.61 percent in the first seven months of the year.