The Port of Long Beach said shifting alliance routes and the Hanjin bankruptcy continued to affect its volumes in November, when container traffic was 13.8 percent lower than the same month last year.
A total of 534,308 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) were moved through the harbor last month. Imports fell 11.8 percent to 270,610 TEU. Exports declined 3.1 percent to 120,897 TEU, while empty TEUs numbered 142,801, 24.2 percent off.
The port experienced its second-best November ever in 2015, part of a six-month run of gains to end the year above 7 million TEU for only the third time in its history. This year the port has faced challenges as ocean carriers have merged, reorganized into new alliances and realigned routes. Additionally, a major customer, Hanjin Shipping, declared bankruptcy in August.
Hanjin Shipping represented 12.3 percent of Long Beach’s containerized volume and held a 54 percent stake in Total Terminals International, the operator of Pier T, one of the port’s largest and most modern terminals.
Through the first 11 months of 2016, port container traffic is 5.6 percent behind the same point last year.