The Port of Long Beach, a gateway to the West Coast of the United States, reported that container throughput increased by 52.6% in July due to increased inventory by American retailers.
Like the neighboring Port of Los Angeles, which reported its throughput for July on August 13th, the Port of Long Beach processed a record breaking 882376 TEUs in July 2024, about 52.6% higher than the same period last year. This month's throughput is 12.4% higher than the record set in July 2022, making it the third busiest month in the history of the port.
Imports drove the record breaking data for July, with a port throughput of 435081 TEUs, a significant increase of 60.5% compared to the same month in 2023.
Unlike the Port of LA, the Port of Long Beach believes that the surge in throughput is due to an earlier peak season, but it believes that the peak season is still coming.
Mario Cordero, CEO of the Port of Long Beach, said, "With consumers purchasing back to school supplies and shippers shipping ahead of potential tariff increases, we are in a favorable position during the peak shipping season." "Our terminals have sufficient capacity, and goods continue to be transported efficiently and sustainably through this major gateway to trans Pacific trade
In July of this year, the export volume of the port also increased by 16% to 104834 TEUs, although the export volume is still only about a quarter of the import volume. The volume of empty containers processed in July 2024 surged by 57.8%, reaching 342462 TEUs.
Long Beach Port processed 5.17 million TEUs in the first seven months of 2024, an increase of 20% compared to the same period last year.
