LA up 42pc, Long Beach up 35.9pc - both hit all-time box highs in February
Time：2016-03-14
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LA volume was up 42 per cent year on year, hitting its highest in its 109-year history at 713,721 TEU while adjacent Long Beach increased 35.9 per cent to 561,412 TEU, its highest score in its 105 years.
But last month`s numbers are a far cry from those garnered in February 2015 at the climax of a cold war between the dockers union and the employers association that resulted in massive congestion and cargo diversion to avoid it.
Today, LA`s laden boxes increased 34.5 per cent to 519.2 million TEU with empties coming in at 194.4 million, up 67 per cent.
Rival Long Beach laden containers were up 32 per cent to 418,880 TEU while empties were up 45.5 per cent.
Imports, boosted by a high dollar and rising US domestic demand, were up with LA loading 372,744 TEU, rising 46.6-per cent year on year. Long Beach loaded imports increased 45.5 per cent to 295,870 TEU.
Long Beach said it benefitted from the February 18 call of the 18,000-TEU CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, the largest containership to call in the US, and soon to be one of many mega ships to call on west coast, starting in late March.