by Calculated Risk on 1/22/2006 06:00:00 PM

The Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles reported a seasonal decrease in import traffic for December.

Import traffic at the Port of Long Beach decreased 12.7% compared to November and was 1.2% less than December 2004. A total of 266 thousand loaded cargo containers came into the Port of Long Beach, compared to 305 thousand in November. The record is 313 thousand set in August 2005.

The Port of Los Angeles import traffic decreased 1.2% in December compared to November, but imports were up 16% from December 2004. Imports were 321 thousand containers. The record for the Port of Los Angeles was set in October with 368.5 thousand import containers.

For Long Beach, outbound traffic was down 3% to 104 thousand containers. At Los Angeles, outbound traffic was steady at 98 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. Given these numbers, I expect imports from Asia to be lower in December than in November.