JOC Staff | Jan 17, 2013 8:49AM EST
The Port of Long Beach in December recorded its busiest month of 2012, handling a total of 560,120, or a 9.8 percent increase over December 2011. Containerized imports were up 18.9 percent over December 2011 and exports increased 4.9 percent.
Much of the increase can be attributed to the move last year of a trans-Pacific service operated by Mediterranean Shipping Co. and CMA CGM from Los Angeles to Long Beach.
The December numbers announced Tuesday by the Port of Los Angeles also reflect the switch, with total container volume in Los Angeles down 9.4 percent in December. MSC and CMA CGM have been upgrading the size of the vessels in that weekly service to about 13,000-TEU capacity.
For the year, Long Beach’s container volume was down 0.3 percent from 2011. Imports increased 1.2 percent, exports were up 2.2 percent and empty containers, most of which were repositioned to Asia, declined 5.6 percent.