Port of Los Angeles Breaks Record
When it comes to the movement of materials and merchandise through ports, the amount is measured in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), the number of standard-size containers it would take to contain it all. This is to give you an idea of how much stuff went through the Port of Los Angeles in the third quarter of 2024.
Details
September’s count was 954,706, an increase of 27% from September 2023. The quarter total for TEUs moved was 2,854,904 TEUs. That is roughly an amount that would cover half of Manhattan.
The most obvious culprit for this increase in economic activity is the impending holiday season. It seems like each year, Christmas comes just a little bit earlier, with decorations appearing on shelves in August. It appears consumers are hoping to jump the gun this year and get their holiday shopping underway, a direction that Port Executive Director Gene Seroka calls a return to normalcy from the pandemic. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has come and gone, he has economic data to back his claim that the demand lost from the initial months of that period can still be felt in increased demand today.
“Census data shows that retail sales have grown for 52 consecutive months. Retail sales are up 3.5% so far from a year ago, and that’s very robust when Gross Domestic Product is 2.5-3%. Wages are growing, housing is still relatively better off, and unemployment is low by historic standards.”
This increase in port activity means an increase in truck activity, as the Port of Los Angeles hopes to implement a truck reservation system to get cargo units off of boats and onto roads more quickly.
Conclusion
Seroka’s evidence for the increased demand from the pandemic four years ago does raise an interesting question, however: if the nation’s economy is still bursting at the seams due to the delay in demand, how much longer will this growth spurt continue? We have seen that truck sales have also managed to explode after the dog days of the pandemic, continuing into 2024. Until it happens, trucking fleets are in a prime position to do some business!
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