In Los Angeles, the largest U.S. port, exports jumped 15.8% compared with March 2009, driven by such items as scrap paper, scrap metal, agricultural products and finished manufactured goods. Long Beach’s exports also rose strongly, 10.9%, as both ports benefited from the weakness of the U.S. dollar against other major world currencies. The exchange rates made U.S. goods more attractive and affordable overseas.
In the first quarter, the Long Beach port’s cargo traffic was up 15.9% to 1.3 million containers, in part because of a surge of empty containers heading back to Asia, which port officials hope is a sign of Asian manufacturers needing them for product exports back to the U.S.