Port of Long Beach reports busiest July ever

Port of Long Beach (POLB) has handled a record number of 784,845TEU for the month of July, presenting an increase of 4.2% from the same period of last year, which was the previous “record July”.

Particularly, container imports saw a year-on-year (YoY) slight growth of 1.6%, with 382,940TEU, while exports noted a significant decrease of 20.7%, with 109,951TEU.

However, empties moved out of the US port, ballooned by 22.8%, to 291,955 TEU.

“Ships arrived last month to move these empty containers out of the harbour and clear valuable terminal space as we handle historic amounts of trade,” said POLB Executive Director, Mario Cordero.

“These boxes are a valuable commodity in the overstressed global supply chain. Our loaded exports are likely to rebound this month”, he added.

With the July result, the Californian port has broken monthly cargo records in 12 of the last 13 months.

However, the global pandemic continues to impact trade volumes. An outbreak at the Port of Yantian in China delayed some vessels that called at the Port of Long Beach in July.

It is likely that increasing Covid-19 cases in Vietnam will disrupt supplies in the months ahead as factories shut down to contain outbreaks of the virus, according to a statement.