Imports dive at ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach

[AllentownJake]

In another sign of how deep the global recession has become, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Friday reported their worst combined import statistics for September in nine years.

September is often the busiest month at the nation's biggest port complex, making it one of the best barometers of the health of the economy and international trade.

The port of Los Angeles received 309,078 containers packed with imported goods in September, representing a decline of 16% from the same month last year and 27% from September 2006, L.A.'s best month ever for imports. Long Beach received 224,924 import containers in September, a drop of 19% from a year earlier and 32% from September 2007, the port's best September ever.

For the first nine months of the year, imports, exports and empty containers through the port of Los Angeles were down 16% at just under 5 million containers while the Long Beach port saw a decline of nearly 25% at just under 3.7 million containers, compared with the same period last year.

As dismal as those figures are for the two ports, which rank first and second in the U.S. in container volume and together rank fifth in the world, a greater worry goes beyond the immediate and substantial loss of local trade-related jobs: Some of the ports' most important tenants were so poorly positioned for the downturn that they might sink completely in a sea of billions of dollars of red ink, experts say.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ports17-2009oct17,0,4849546.story

[xchrom]

1. oy -- this can't be good --

'Some of the ports' most important tenants were so poorly positioned for the downturn that they might sink completely in a sea of billions of dollars of red ink, experts say.'

[AllentownJake]

2. The bigger issue is that goods are imported in September

For distribution for sales in November and December.

Translation, retailers have ordered 25% less as well.

I believe we will see a string of retailer bankruptcies in January in response to Christmas.

[Possumpoint]

3. Hold On

This may be a heads up play by the retailers to reduce inventory and thereby prop up prices. They can tell the customers there's a limited supply, get it while they last and not be forced into drastic price reductions to clear the inventory.

[AllentownJake]

6. I believe you have several firms both smaller and larger

looking to go into bankruptcy in 2010. Circuit City declared bankruptcy on January 16th.

If a firm thinks its going out of business they will order what inventory they need for Christmas and try to sell out as much of existing inventory as possible.

Firms will do what they need to survive till Christmas and see if they can pull out a miracle.

This is evidence that retailers are predicting a much lower sales volume than the -1% they are projecting for Christmas 2009.

[ourbluenation]

4. What the article doesn't mention is the increased port competition from Mex and CA. n/t

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. I thought this was what all the America Firsters wanted?

No?

:shrug:

:eyes:

[AllentownJake]

7. Exports are down too

On a short term basis it shows retailers are predicting weaker Christmas sales than they are saying they are expecting.

[gmoney]

8. wait, weren't we importing too much crap before?

I doubt we've replaced those imports with domestic production, but maybe reduced imports means we're at least slowing the rampant over-consumption of imported crap?

Isn't this kind of like the way the health insurance industry is going to shed a lot of jobs if we get decent reforms in place?

[AllentownJake]

9. It's more complex than that

10 years from now it might be very good for us, this winter will be bad. I suspect in January you will have more retail institutions declaring bankruptcy or reducing stores. This will lead to more joblessness.

[Xicano]

10. I am a longshoreman in the port of Los Angeles/Long Beach

Work has dropped quite a bit. The casuals are hardly getting any work and the class B longshoreman have some days where they don't have any work. I know lots of fellow class A longshoreman who have switched dispatch boards to different categories than they usually work.

However, not all the reduction in work in the Los Angeles/Long Beach harbors is due to trade reduction. A good portion of that is due to the shipping companies sending more of the work to other ports along the west coast. Other ports such as Seattle, Portland and San Francisco might be having their reduced numbers, due to trade reduction, off-set by the shifting of cargos from Los Angeles/Long Beach to their ports.


Peace,
Xicano

[xchrom]

11. thanks for the info -- it did occur

that it would be nice to have numers from other ports.