Port of Los Angeles sets all-time monthly container traffic record in November

The Port of Los Angeles, the nation's busiest seaport, said today it set an all-time monthly record for container throughput last month, moving 924,225 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). The port, which has been in operation since 1907, had set its previous all-time record of 8.8 million TEUs last November with 877,654 TEUs.

In the eleven months through 2017, volumes are up 6.3 percent from the same period in 2016, port officials said. Los Angeles is on track to be the first port in the Western Hemiäphere to exceed 9 million TEUs in a calendar year, it said.

In November, loaded imports increased 6.1 percent, to 463,690 TEUs, compared to November 2016. Loaded exports increased 0.3 percent to 177,913 TEUs. Empty containers rose 6.3 percent to 282,621 TEUs. Empty containers are typically shipped back to Asia, where they are stuffed with goods heading back to the U.S.

The port's November volumes were helped by last-minute shipments of holiday merchandise, as well as by poor weather, which forced some vessels originally scheduled to call the port in October to delay their arrivals until November, according to Phillip Sanfield, a port spokesman.