Holiday shoppers keep US ports busy

Many more people in the United States are doing their holiday shopping online this year due to the pandemic－and many of those goods are being shipped from China.

The Port of Los Angeles in October processed a record 980,729 twenty-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, in goods volume, an increase of 27.3 percent over the same period last year, the port said in a statement.

"Propelled by replenishment of inventories and retailers preparing for upcoming holidays, October marked the busiest month in the port's 114-year history," the port said.

At the port, "shipping containers carrying Chinese imports are stacked like Legos in piles six high. Truckers jam the parking lots, waiting hours to pick up goods, which are then dispatched across the continent", was how The New York Times described the scene in early December.

Gene Seroka, the port's executive director, told the newspaper: "We're going through a time that truly is unprecedented. This ordering and replenishment is bigger than anything we've seen, and now it coincides with holidays."

While November's port numbers were lower, 889,746 TEUs－they still were 22 percent higher than in November 2019, according to Seroka, who delivered a virtual monthly update to California media on Tuesday.

About 30 kilometers south of Los Angeles, the Port of Long Beach also continued to see burgeoning cargo numbers in November with 783,523 TEUs, a 30.6 percent jump over a year ago.

"For every three and a half containers that are imported into Los Angeles from abroad, only one container leaves filled with US exports," Seroka said in the release, sounding a note of concern about the US trade deficit.

This November, China reported a record trade surplus of $75.4 billion, as exports rose more than 2 percent. Exports to the US jumped 46 percent to nearly $52 billion, another record.

Overseas demand

China's rising exports are occurring despite the yuan hovering near multiyear highs against the US dollar. The Chinese currency has notched six straight months of gains, its longest such run since late 2014.

China's exports were supported by overseas demand for personal protective equipment and electronics products for people working from home amid the pandemic, as well as seasonal Christmas demand, analysts at Nomura Securities said in a research note.

"We believe China's export growth could remain elevated for another several months due to the worsening COVID-19 situation overseas," the note said.

Strong sales of refrigerators, toasters and microwaves to households have helped recharge Chinese manufacturing, powering demand for metals such as steel, copper and aluminum after a slump early in the year.

"Overall, China's quick economic recovery and its dominance as a source for products that Americans have turned to during the pandemic have outweighed the dampening effect of Trump's tariffs," Mary E. Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute, told the Times in reference to tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump on a range of Chinese imports.

At the Port of Los Angeles, the increased volume has helped the local economy and workers but also caused a backlog, with sometimes a dozen or more ships waiting in the harbor.

While Black Friday shoppers were content to stay home this year, it didn't mean they were being Grinches. Instead of putting on masks and contending with the hordes looking for doorbuster sales at all hours of the morning, they went online, which has been the long-term trend.

Online spending on Black Friday last month jumped nearly 22 percent to hit a record $9 billion, while on Cyber Monday－three days after Thanksgiving－online sales reached $10.8 billion, the largest US online-shopping day ever, according to Adobe Analytics.

Likely adding to the Christmas-season buying is some "retail therapy" in a country where the COVID-19 outbreak has claimed more than 300,000 lives. That includes yuletide decorations, of which China has been a regular source, so much so that Trump temporarily delayed tariffs on Christmas ornaments and tree lights last year.

Reuters contributed to this story.