Port of Long Beach (POLB) officials announced today that container volumes dropped 16.6 percent year-over-year in September following Hanjin’s bankruptcy filing late August.
Longshore workers moved 546,805 twenty-foot equivalent units in September, POLB officials stated. The units included 282,945 TEUs in imports, down 15 percent from September of last year, a month that capped off the port’s best quarter ever, according to officials. Exports dropped to 120,383 TEUs, a decrease of 4.2 percent, and 143,476 TEUs were reportedly empty—a 27.2 percent drop.
The number of containers handled during September was impacted not only by reduced calls by Hanjin-operated ships, but also by the absence of Hanjin containers on vessels operated by fellow CKYHE Alliance members, port officials said.
About 12.3 percent of the port’s total containerized volume comes from Hanjin Shipping containers.
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Port officials said that cargo volumes have dropped 4.6 percent for the current calendar year to date in Long Beach.
On Tuesday, Noel Hacegaba, the port’s managing director of commercial operations, announced that the Port of Long Beach will be one of multiple West Coast ports that will begin to accept empty Hanjin containers.