Port of Long Beach: May Import Traffic Strong

Import traffic at the Port of Long Beach rose 6% over April, almost to the highs of last fall's heavy shipping season. The Port of Los Angeles will report in the next couple of days.

For Long Beach, the number of loaded inbound containers for MAY April was 288 thousand, up 6% from April and up 19% from May 2004. Outbound traffic was off 1% at 106 thousand containers, just below April's record.

And in a related story, the Port of Long Beach hosted the "Peak Season Forecast Conference" on Tuesday.

At the Pulse of the Ports conference, the experts forecast 2005 cargo gains of 10 to 15 percent. In preparation for this year's increase, they said they have added workers and equipment, and cargo has been moving smoothly.

"We may see two-to-three-day delays," during the peak season, said Frank Baragona of CMA CGM.

"We had one-week delays last year and that's not going to happen this year," said Doug Tilden of Marine Terminals.

This shipping data probably indicates near record imports from China. My very preliminary guess is that US imports from China will be over $19 Billion NSA for May compared to $18.12B for April 2005.