LAEDC
LOS ANGELES — Southern California’s key international trade industry will see more declines in activity during 2009 after a dismal performance in 2008, according to the International Trade Trends & Impacts report prepared annually by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC).
“The number of containers moved at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in 2009 will drop by 13.5 percent, while the total value of two-way trade through the Los Angeles Customs District should fall by 15.8 percent to $300 billion,” said Nancy Sidhu. Ph.D., the LAEDC’s chief economist.
“2008 was a year full of unhappy surprises for the international trade industry,” continued Sidhu. “The industry saw employment fall by 9.3 percent, or 46,000 jobs, while industrial vacancy rates spiked up to 9.9 percent at year-end 2008 in the Riverside-San Bernardino area.”
The latter had been a hotbed of new construction, much of it on speculation that international trade in the region would continue to boom. Both the ocean shipping industry and railroads have been hammered by the downturn with a lot of equipment pulled out of service. Some of the key findings of the LAEDC and full report can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/
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