Port of Los Angeles Gets It

As part of President Obama’s National Export Initiative Agenda, which calls for a doubling of U.S. exports over a five-year period, the Port of Los Angeles continues to focus on assisting businesses throughout the region.

It does this by community outreach, teaching the basics of exporting, including costs, risks, finding overseas markets, trade financing and logistics. Export workshops occur throughout the year.

While the Port of LA experienced record-breaking exports as outbound container volumes, California’s exporters turned in another strong performance in November, marking the 25th consecutive month in which the state’s merchandise export trade increased on a year-over-year basis.

The value of goods shipped abroad by California businesses in November reached $14.07 billion, a nominal gain of 12.7 percent over the $12.49 billion reported in November 2010, according to an analysis by Beacon Economics of foreign trade data released late last week by the U.S. Commerce Department.

Total U.S. merchandise exports were up 12.1 percent over the same period.

California’s exports of manufactured goods edged up 9.6 percent to $8.57 billion, while non-manufactured exports (chiefly raw materials and agricultural products) were up 16.3 percent to $2.14 billion. Re-exports, meanwhile, rose by 18.7 percent to $3.36 billion.?

Overall, the California economy is showing strong signs of turning the economic corner. Beacon Economics’ Founding Partner Christopher Thornberg, said job growth, consumer spending, non-residential construction and industrial vacancies have all showed signs of strong improvement in recent months.

“Much of the momentum behind California’s economy can be traced back to the state’s resurgent export sectors,” Thornberg said.

The Port of Los Angeles also deserves some credit.