(Bloomberg) -- The Port of Los Angeles processed more container units last month than any other July on record, driven by retailers eager to get their holiday goods in early.
“Toys, clothing, footwear and electronics are arriving now to avoid risk later in the year,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka on Tuesday. “These goods are coming at the same time as our more typical back-to-school, fall fashion and Halloween merchandise.”
Importers have moved peak season earlier as they try to get ahead of tariffs, Red Sea cargo diversions, and a potential strike by East and Gulf Coast dockworkers starting in October, Seroka told reporters Tuesday.
The Port of LA — the busiest container hub in the US — handled a total of 939,600 twenty-foot equivalent units in July, a 37% increase over the previous year. More than 501,000 import units crossed the docks last month, an almost 38% increase from last year and the most since the height of the pandemic. Exports leaving the port totaled nearly 115,000 units in July, a 4% boost from a year earlier.
Meanwhile, cargo handlers moved more than 323,000 empty containers, a 54% increase over last year. “This substantial movement of empties back to Asia tells me there’s more cargo headed our way,” Seroka said.
Strike Risk
The International Longshoremen’s Association, which represents dockworkers at ports from Boston to Houston, is preparing to strike if there’s no deal on a new contract by the Sept. 30 deadline. Negotiations between the union and the United States Maritime Alliance, representing their employers, have reached an impasse over wage demands and disagreements on the use of automation.
“Supply chain managers have been trying very hard this year to mitigate risk in advance by changing their operating practices,” said S&P Global Market Intelligence economist Paul Bingham, who joined the briefing.
If a strike does happen and it last just a few days, Bingham said it would have a minimal impact on the overall economy, “especially with the mitigation steps already taken.”
If a strike were to last longer than that, the impact on some goods such as fresh produce will start to have real impacts on consumers and businesses, he said.
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