by Calculated Risk on 9/16/2005 03:10:00 PM

Import traffic at the Port of Long Beach increased 6% compared to July, breaking the record traffic of last fall's heavy shipping season. A total of 306 thousand loaded cargo containers came into the Port of Long Beach, compared to 289.5 thousand in July and breaking the previous record of 296 thousand last November.

The Port of Los Angeles import traffic showed a 3% decline in August. However imports of 343 thousand containers were still near the all time high.

For Long Beach, outbound traffic was up 3.5% at 110.7 thousand containers - also a record. At Los Angeles, outbound traffic was down 3% to 95 thousand containers.

The quantity of containers says nothing about the content value, but provides a rough guide on imports from China and the rest of Asia. With these numbers, I expect record imports from China for August.