by Calculated Risk on 11/17/2005 10:32:00 AM

The Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles reported mixed import traffic for October.

Import traffic at the Port of Long Beach decreased 4.5% compared to September. A total of 299 thousand loaded cargo containers came into the Port of Long Beach, compared to 313.5 thousand in September.

The Port of Los Angeles import traffic increased 5% in October. Imports were 368.8 thousand containers, setting a new all time record for the Port of Los Angeles.

For both ports, outbound traffic recovered from the September slump. For Long Beach, outbound traffic was up 6.6% to 103 thousand containers. At Los Angeles, outbound traffic was up 5.5% to 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 about the same in October as in September.