L.A.’s Ports Remain Busiest; International Trade Up 14%

The Los Angeles Customs District, enjoying healthy gains in international trade, enjoyed a sharp gain in dollar volume of traffic in the first six months of the year, a report released Wednesday says. The 14% gain allowed the district to retain its status as the nation’s busiest port, although second-place New York narrowed the gap, the report says.

International trade passing through the Los Angeles district--which includes the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Los Angeles International Airport, Port Hueneme and the Las Vegas airport--soared to $80.9 billion from January through June, according to a quarterly trade report released Wednesday by Claremont McKenna College and TradeWeek, a national trade publication.

The growth was fueled by expanding economies in Pacific Rim nations led by Japan and China. Exports such as computer chips, cars and aircraft parts jumped 6% over last year, and imports climbed 4%.

In a separate report, the Port of Los Angeles said October was the best month in its 90-year history, saying volume traveling through the port jumped 21.4% in October over the same period last year.

According to the Claremont-TradeWeek report, the New York Customs District--including the Port of New York, John F. Kennedy International Airport and airports in Albany, N.Y., and Newark, N.J.--posted a 20.7% increase, to $76.6 billion, in the first six months of 1996.

The larger gain by New York was expected, as it had more room to expand its volume due to a slow growth period blamed on a recession in Europe. Europe’s recovery, and a decision by several Asian countries to ferry goods through the Suez Canal, helped fuel New York’s gains.

Still, the jump in New York trade does not portend a challenge to Los Angeles’ status as the nation’s busiest port, said Sven Arndt, director of the Lowe Institute for the Political Economy at Claremont.

“The greater surge in New York trade doesn’t negate Los Angeles’ lead,” Arndt said. “We want to look at the long-term probability of them closing the gap.”

New York is unlikely to overcome Los Angeles because Europe won’t show the same growth rates that Asia will, Arndt said.

Riding on buoyant growth in Asian countries and an upsurge in the flow of electronic goods and aircraft parts through its ports, Los Angeles snatched the nation’s busiest-port status away from New York two years ago. Consistent quarterly increases in international trade since then have convinced trade experts that Los Angeles will retain the title for some time.

“These numbers are a confirmation of what we first saw in 1995 when Los Angeles surged ahead of New York,” Arndt said. “This proves it wasn’t a fluke.”

Booming growth in international trade here vaulted the number of containers traveling through the Port of Long Beach to 3 million for its fiscal year ended Sept. 30, making it the first port in North America to surpass that milestone. Long Beach is the nation’s No. 1 container port.

More than $1 million a day is being pumped into construction projects at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, further strengthening their infrastructure in a race to attract shippers, said Jack Kyser, senior economist at the Economic Development Corp. of Los Angeles County.

But experts agree that the battle between Los Angeles and New York is far from over.

Although the Los Angeles Customs District has more land than New York, its labor is more expensive, forcing it to keep productivity high, Kyser said.

Arndt emphasized the fluidity of international trade, saying developments such as a strike by longshoremen or a harsh winter could cause traffic traveling through ports on either coast to plummet.