Port of Long Beach nears record TEUs

 The Port of Long Beach, Calif., is riding a wave of six straight months of record volumes to head toward 9.6 million twenty foot equivalent units (TEU) in 2024, breaking a record for container volumes set during the pandemic in 2021.

The second-busiest U.S. import gateway reported its best November on record, handling 884,154 TEUs, an increase of 20.9% from the same month a year ago and ahead of the previous record set in November 2020 by 12.8%. 

Loaded imports gained 21.8% to 432,823 TEUs while loaded exports were 9.5% better at 119,083 TEUs from November 2023. Empty containers reached 332,250 TEUs, up 24.5%. 

It was the sixth consecutive monthly year-over-year cargo increase.