The PSI Election Meeting also featured a presentation by Heejoo Ramsey (pictured at right), assistant marketing manager-business development for the Port of Long Beach (POLB). The port—which is the No. 1 loaded export port in the U.S.—handled 9.38 million 20-foot-equivalent units (TEUs) in 2021, the highest volume in its 110-year history and roughly 16% higher than its previous record volume in 2020, she reported. The port’s import and export volumes (including empties) in January 2022 continued to look strong, beating last year’s January volume by almost 6%.
Port congestion continues to be a problem at ports around the world, Ramsey said, though she noted that the POLB has improved its terminal dwell time—the amount of time a container spends within a port. At its worst, in November 2021, about 50% of the containers in the port had a dwell time of greater than five days. As of January 2022, that figure had declined to about 38% of containers.
