Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach set all-time records

The Port of Los Angeles reported its busiest month on record in September with container volume increasing 18.1% to 1,042,652 TEUs from 883,053 a year earlier. (Eric Thayer/Bloomberg)

Trucking companies serving the country’s major ports had to grapple with a national shift in volumes toward the West Coast in September.

Descartes Systems Group reported in its monthly global shipping report that overall container import volumes increased 10.3% from the prior year to 2,546,261 20-foot-equivalent units. That marked the highest volume on record for the month, but the result was down 2.2% compared with August. The report noted that maritime imports remain resilient.

“September was the month the import surge stopped being lane-specific and became a West Coast story,” said Cory Petersen, vice president of sales and operations at Circle Logistics. “The national picture was the strongest September on record. But the detail that matters for trucking is that Oakland and Savannah grew modestly while the Gulf Coast was down almost 15% month over month.”

RELATED: Freight volume out of sync with ports’ import activity

Petersen added that the results have been driven by ocean routing and not consumer demand favoring Southern California. He noted that Panama Canal water level restrictions, uncertainty for the Suez Canal regarding security and diesel prices have pushed cargo to the fastest transpacific lanes in a way that favored the San Pedro Bay.

The Port of Los Angeles reported its busiest month on record in September with container volume increasing 18.1% to 1,042,652 TEUs from 883,053 a year earlier. The Port of Long Beach likewise reported an all-time record with volume increasing 25% to 997,177 from 797,537.

“San Pedro Bay absorbed it whether or not the inland network grew with it,” Petersen said. “Pricing is firming because trucking capacity has contracted, not because freight demand is exploding everywhere.”

The Cass Freight Index showed shipments increased 1.9% year over year to 1.062 across North America. It also found that expenditures rose 20.4% to 3.97, while the truckload linehaul index increased 10.1% to 154.8. The report highlighted that an acceleration in expenditures the past two months was driven by higher shipments, rates and fuel surcharges.

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Port Houston container volume increased 11% year over year in September to 376,419 TEUs from 337,659. (Port Houston)

“That spread between volume growth and rate growth is the whole story of this market,” Petersen said. “The pressure point right now is rail, not the gate. Truck dwell at L.A./Long Beach has held just under three days, which is fluid. Rail-destined containers were sitting close to seven days, the longest of the year, and September volume did not help.”

Petersen added that boxes get converted to transload and over the road when rail backs up, and that is where outbound capacity tightens first out of Southern California. The tightness for his team showed up on the longer-haul lanes out of the region instead of local drayage. He noted the main constraint for the month was finding qualified capacity, not just any capacity.

“The bigger takeaway is that the traditional freight calendar is gone,” Petersen said. “September used to be the tail end of peak. This year it was the peak, and it was driven by canal access, fuel prices and trade policy rather than a retail calendar. Shippers who plan drayage, chassis and outbound truck capacity off the old calendar will keep getting caught by months like this one.”

Circle Logistics ranks No. 94 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies in North America.

The Pacific Merchant Shipping Association reported that truck dwell increased 7.8% from the previous month to 3.18 days in September. Also, rail dwell increased 6.5% to 7.19 days. The data covers both the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports. The report credited the increase to the ports handling record volumes and peak-season cargo.

“Higher dwell times reflect the sheer volume of cargo moving through the complex, with rail dwell continuing to be the area of greatest pressure,” said Natasha Villa, senior manager of public affairs at PMSA. “Marine terminals, drayage providers and rail partners continue to work closely together to keep cargo moving throughout our extended peak season.”

The Intermodal Association of North America reported that its Intermodal Volume Index rose 5.2% from the prior year to 106.4 and 1.5% sequentially. IANA said intermodal volumes have had underlying strength all year.

“September’s IVI reflects the strength we’d expect as we enter peak season, plus additional growth from strong imports and continuing domestic share shift away from longhaul trucking,” said Andrew Sibold, director of economics at IANA.

The other major seaports showed mixed results:

• Northwest Seaport Alliance volume declined 8.1% to 265,692 TEUs from 289,120

• Port Houston container volume increased 11% to 376,419 from 337,659

• Port of Oakland container volume increased 5.4% to 188,517 from 178,942

Results from the South Carolina Ports Authority and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey were not available at press time.

Meanwhile, C.H. Robinson launched new AI agents Oct. 26 that perform work in ocean shipping, airfreight and customs brokerage. The aim is to expand its Lean AI capabilities into freight forwarding so that customers with complex shipping tasks can deploy a dozen agents working in tandem.

“When plans change or disruptions occur, customers can more quickly evaluate a new routing, mode of shipping, schedule or price,” said Mike Short, president of global forwarding at C.H. Robinson. “Not to mention speed to market is a real competitive advantage.”

C.H. Robinson ranks No. 2 on the logistics TT100.