Last month, the Port of Long Beach established its own new all-time record for monthly container traffic, while the other main Californian port of call of Los Angeles has handled a volume of containerized cargo that is more than 100 thousand TEUs compared to the historical record of May 2021 although, with regard to the month of October, lower only than that of 2018.

Last month in Long Beach the new historical peak was 987,191 TEUs, with an increase of +30.7% on October 2023. The new record was achieved thanks to volumes never before previously reached of full container flows at unloading and empty containers, which amounted to 487,560 respectively TEUs (+34.2%) and 386,782 TEUs (+28.2%). Growth in Full containers at embarkation totaling 112,845 TEUs (+25.3%), the type of traffic that reached its highest before of the effects of the 2008-2009 financial crisis with the peak of the reached in April 2008 with 163,577 TEUs.

In October 2024 the total traffic in Los Angeles was equal to 905,026 TEUs (+24.7%), of which 462,740 full TEUs at landing (+24.2%), 122,716 full TEUs at embarkation (+1.2%) and 319,570 empty TEUs (+37,7%).

Both the leaders of the two US ports have attributed to the substantial increase in container traffic recorded in October to the concern of importers for the possible repercussions on traffic, stimulated by the imminence of the upcoming holidays, of the ongoing dispute over the renewal of the of the East Coast Dockworkers' Contract and the possible upcoming increase in shipping rates.

In the first ten months of this year, the Port of Long Beach handled a total of 7,904,566 TEUs, up +20.2% over the same period in 2023, of which 3,883,852 TEUs were full at the disembarkation (+24.7%), 987,163 full TEUs at embarkation (-7.7%) and 3,033,553 empty TEUs (+26.8%). In Los Angeles the total traffic was of 8,491,420 TEUs (+19.2%), including 4,437,600 full TEUs upon landing (+20.2%), 1,259,600 full TEUs at embarkation (+19.0%) and 2,794,220 TEUs empty (+17.7%).