 |
Southern California's twin ports enjoyed another burst of cargo traffic in July with the surge in Asian imports, but economists are concerned that the freight flurry won't last as consumers take a vacation from spending and retailers trim orders to match reduced expectations.
July is usually the opening month of the busiest cargo shipping season of the year, when retailers begin to receive goods that they hope to sell during the end-of-the-year holidays. Import numbers tend to climb steadily through October, the month when cargo usually peaks at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. But perhaps not this year.
July was still one of the best months in many years for both ports, reported Los Angeles Times.
At Los Angeles, the nation's busiest container port, imports were up 21 percent to 369,389 containers compared with a year earlier, and exports increased 5.9 percent to 146,369 containers. Overall traffic at Los Angeles rose 26.8 percent to 730,746 containers in July and 16.8 percent for the year to 4.4 million containers.
At Long Beach, second only to Los Angeles in cargo traffic, imports climbed 32.5 percent to 293,878 containers compared with the same month a year earlier, and exports rose 16.4 percent to 126,177 containers. Overall traffic at the port was up 35.8 percent to 587,881 containers in July and up 22.3 percent for the year to 3.4 million containers.
"The traditional peak season may be melting away," said Ben Hackett, founder of Hackett Associates, which monitors cargo volumes at the busiest seaports in North America on behalf of the National Retail Federation.
The good news is that international trade will finish the year far ahead of the numbers recorded last year, when global cargo container traffic fell for the first time in at least half a century, according to AXS Alphaliner, which tracks the maritime industry from its headquarters in Paris.
The bad news for the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach – part of a supply-chain infrastructure that employs dockworkers, truck drivers, railroad employees, warehouse and distribution center staffs and logistics experts – is that the big bump in holiday-season cargo jobs may not come this year.
Consumers remain very cautious about the safety of their own jobs, and retailers are paying attention to those signals, experts said.
"Retailers are monitoring demand very closely and hoping to see increases in employment and other areas that will boost consumer confidence," said Jonathan Gold, vice president for supply chain and customs policy for the National Retail Federation.
At the port of Los Angeles, the harbour's main shipping channel no longer looks like a place quiet enough for waterskiing, as the port's executive director, Geraldine Knatz, observed last year.
"I see ships out there, so it's not waterskiing time," Knatz quipped. "There are still a lot of concerns about the fourth quarter and early next year, but we just had our second-best July ever after our second-best June ever."
Cargonews Asia
|
Login
