International Trade and Traffic Jams at U.S. Ports

So how fast is international trade growing? For one clue, look at the traffic at U.S. ports. According to this report in the L.A. Times, U.S. ports are facing “cargo volume that is just beyond belief.” And the growth is not limited to the top ports. “For more than 20 years, only three North American ports — Los Angeles, Long Beach and … New York … — handled 2 million or more cargo containers annually…. The Port of Oakland joined them in 2004, and last year three more ports breached the mark or came within two ships’ cargos of it: Tacoma, Wash. (2.1 million), the Virginia Port Authority (1.98 million) and Charleston, S.C. (1.98 million).” In 2005, Los Angeles and Long Beach handled a staggering 14.2 million cargo containers.

The leading U.S. ports (Los Angeles, Long Beach, New York, Oakland, Tacoma, Charleston, Virginia, Seattle, Savannah, and Vancouver) handled 32.9 million cargo containers in 2005 and 30 million in 2004. “It’s simple. We are continuing to see record levels of cargo coming here from Asia, and that trend is going to continue.”

As it happens my office view of the Pacific Ocean sitting here in Malibu includes a distant perspective of the north and south-bound cargo traffic lanes in and out of Long Beach port. It is rare not to see cargo ships in the distance, like planes ready to land at appointed intervals at an international airport.