Cosco terminal photo by Keenan Calhoun, member of ILWU Local 13
Other ports also did well this year, bouncing back from a dismal 2009. New York/New Jersey, ranked third in volume after L.A. and Long Beach, added 12.8% more cargo. Oakland, in fifth place, improved 15.3%.
But none gained as much traffic as Los Angeles and Long Beach, which together handled 20.3% more cargo boxes than in 2009. Cargo traffic through the twin ports grew by 2.4 million containers, for a total of about 14.2 million for 2010, including estimated December cargo movement. Line up the year’s tally of 20-foot containers and there would be more than enough to circle the globe twice. Stack them and they would reach higher than a geosynchronous satellite.