Container traffic gives us an idea about the volume of goods being exported and imported - and possibly some hints about the trade report for June. LA area ports handle about 40% of the nation's container port traffic.
To remove the strong seasonal component for inbound traffic, the first graph shows the rolling 12 month average.
Click on graph for larger image.On a rolling 12 month basis, inbound traffic is up about 0.4%, and outbound traffic is up about 0.5% compared to May.
In general, inbound and outbound traffic has been moving sideways recently.
The 2nd graph is the monthly data (with a strong seasonal pattern for imports).
For the month of June, loaded outbound traffic was up 4.8% compared to June 2011, and loaded inbound traffic was up 6.3% compared to June 2011. This suggests imports from Asia might be up in June, and exports to Asia up too.