Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Economic forecasters predicting a Christmas sales bump in the U.S. may be disappointed, according to early traffic reports from the nation's second-busiest port.
Inbound container cargo at California's Port of Long Beach probably fell again in August after a 1.2 percent drop in July, said Richard Steinke, executive director of the facility.
Retailers are holding back on orders because "there's still consumer skepticism," Steinke said yesterday in an interview at Bloomberg News's Los Angeles office. "Unsettled is probably a good word to describe what's going on now."
The National Retail Federation last month forecast a 10 percent jump in U.S. inbound container volume in September and an 8 percent rise in October. The busiest shipping season typically starts in late July or early August and can continue through October.
"This year, July was not good," Steinke said. "August numbers are not looking good."
Long Beach and the adjacent Port of Los Angeles are the two largest in the U.S., accounting for 40 percent of the nation's container shipments, according to Art Wong, a spokesman for the Long Beach port. The port will report its August figures mid- month, he said.
In Los Angeles, inbound shipments for July were down 3.17 percent to 357,667 containers. August results will be issued in the next couple of weeks, said Rachel Campbell, a spokeswoman for the port.
The ports' cargo, half of which comes from China, includes clothing, furniture and toys. "It's the shopping mall coming in on those ships," Wong said.
'Abundance of Caution'
Retailers and manufacturers have cut back on orders after being spooked by the down-to-the-wire federal debt-limit debate last month, according to John Husing, an economist specializing in Southern California.
"What you are seeing are the decisions being made by the supply chain managers and the folks who control inventory," Husing said in a telephone interview. "What you're hearing is an abundance of caution."
Overall container traffic in Long beach jumped 24 percent last year to more than 6.2 million units, while Los Angeles gained 16 percent to 7.8 million.
Long Beach shipments rose 4.7 percent this year through July. Even if that pace continued for the year the port won't top its 2007 peak of more than 7.3 million containers.
"Obviously the economy is still sputtering," Steinke said. "And we're a pretty good barometer of that.
--Editors: Anthony Palazzo, Anne Reifenberg
02 Sep, 2011--
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHWt6Ps8oTIbfo29zu6o30QKaAjwg&url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/09/02/bloomberg1376-LQUZO31A74E901-7SGF8LEAMML8F4UJ6CV733KJ3M.DTL
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