The port of Los Angeles has reported its best January since the recession, moving more cargo containers than all but eight other US ports usually move in an entire year.

The trade numbers from San Pedro Harbor also showed the increasing importance of exports at Los Angeles and its neighbouring port of Long Beach, which rank first and second in the US for container cargo.

Major factors, say analysts, was the ports’ success in attracting customers that ship goods overseas and. The weak US dollar also made domestic goods more affordable to non-US buyers.

January was the best month on record for Los Angeles as the port handled 698,715 containers, an increase of more than 38,000 on a year earlier.

Imports were up just over 5%, but the bigger percentage increase came in exports, which rose by nearly 6% to 168,427 containers.

The port’s performance in January broke a five-year-old record set during the height of a global economic boom, in 2007, when 691,602 containers passed through. Back then, only 124,433 were exported.

Port officials said they were surprised by the strength of the numbers.

“This past month took us a little bit by surprise,” said Katherine McDermott, Deputy Executive Director for business development, “but it’s obviously a very nice surprise.

“We had been forecasting conservatively for a 2-3% increase in cargo volumes in 2012.”

She said, however, there were too many uncertainties about the economy to predict that the rest of 2012 would be as strong as January.

Source : http://www.ifw-net.com