Port of Long Beach terminals handled 688,457 TEUs of containerized cargo in July, a 4.4 percent drop compared with the same 2017 period, after several months of year-over-year gains.
Throughput of loaded import containers fell 8.2 percent to 347,736 TEUs for the month, while loaded exports slid 5 percent to 119,747 TEUs.
Those declines were offset in part by rising empty container volumes, which climbed another 2.6 percent to 220,975 TEUs compared with July 2017.
Officials from the Southern California port attributed the decrease in overall volumes primarily to a shift in vessel deployment and port calls by the major east-west container carrier alliances, but also warned that escalating tariffs could dampen trade volumes throughout the remainder of the year.
The port also noted the decline came against a then-record-breaking comparison in July 2017 and followed on the heels of a new monthly record of 752,188 TEUs set just last month.
So far during the port’s 2018 fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, 2017, total volumes have grown 13.4 percent to 6.62 million TEUs from the same fiscal 2017 period, including 3.34 million TEUs of loaded inbound containers, up 12.4 percent year-over-year; 1.32 million TEUs of loaded outbound boxes, up 9.5 percent; and 1.95 million TEUs of empties, up 18.2 percent.
Total throughput in the first seven months of the calendar year stands at 4.64 million TEUs, an 11.3 percent increase from the previous year, putting volumes on pace to surpass the port’s all-time high set in 2017.