LA Port Shipping Is Back to Pre-Recession '07 Level

I reported yesterday that global trade reached a 26-month high in June, and today's report from the Port of Los Angeles provides additional statistical evidence of an ongoing boom in international trade activity. Shipping volume reached a 46-month high in August of 763,837 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs), the highest monthly shipping activity since October of 2006 (see chart above), and the fourth highest monthly volume in history. 

Other highlights include:

1. Compared to August 2009, shipping volume at the LA Port this year gained 24.7%, marking the fifth straight double-digit, year-over-year percentage increase in TEUs.

2. On a year-to-date basis, shipping activity at the LA Port is up by almost 18% compared to the first eight months of last year.

3. August marked the third month in a row where total shipping volume exceeded 730,000 TEUs, which was the first time since a three month period from September to November 2007 before the recession started. 

4. For the month of August, this year's shipping activity was the highest in four years since August of 2006, which was also the case for July (highest for that month since 2006).  For June of this year, it was the highest June shipping volume ever in history at 730,317 TEUs.

Bottom Line: Shipping volumes for the last three months at the LA Port are back to the pre-recession levels of 2007, suggesting that there has been a full recovery in global trade from the 2008-2009 recession.