Thomas L. Gallagher | Oct 19, 2009 12:47PM EDT
Container volume declined at the Port of Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles in September, but the contraction was only slightly worse than historical seasonal variations, said analyst J.P. Morgan.
Combined inbound volumes declined 17.4 percent; outbound volumes decreased 8.6 percent; total volume fell 14.8 percent, according to the Morgan report.
The year-over-year change in inbound freight traffic in September was slightly worse than in August but was still the second best result of any month since January. The deterioration in outbound freight traffic was not so bad as in any month since October 2008. “On a total combined basis the rate of year-over-year contraction in LA/LB port volumes appears to be gradually improving,” said J.P. Morgan.
“We believe this result in September, where the pace of decline in volumes was worse than normal seasonality, is a neutral read through for the freight forwarding companies and their stocks and would be outright negative if not for volumes appearing to be broadly moving in the direction of less worse over the last several months. That said, we believe that potentially rising ocean rates may put pressure on forwarding yields,” the Morgan report concluded.
Contact Thomas L. Gallagher at tgallagher@joc.com.
