Statistics

LA trade narrowly misses $200 billion through July

September 25th, 2007

Los Angeles narrowly missed $200 billion in trade through the first seven months of the year, as its growth slowed along with the rest of the nation’s, through the first seven months of the year.

The district, led by the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as well as Los Angeles International Airport, ended up at $196 billion, increase of 6.6 percent or $12 billion over the same seven-month period in 2006, according to WorldCity analysis of the most recent U.S. Census data.

The year prior, Los Angeles had seen its trade grow at 12.3 percent through July; the year before, the rate was 9.7 percent.

The national growth rate through the first seven months of 2007 was 6.7 percent.

Of the $196 billion total for the Los Angeles Customs district in 2007, exports accounted for $56.6 billion, imports $139.5 billion. The deficit grew slightly, from $81.4 billion to $82.9 billion.

Los Angeles remained the No. 1 district in the nation, although New York closed the gap slightly on slightly more substantial growth. New York’s total was $184.4 billion, on 9.9 percent growth.

China’s growth through the Los Angeles Customs district continued to grow rapidly, up $10.4 billion through July, with $1.6 billion in exports and $8.9 billion in import growth.

China is overwhelmingly the Customs district’s No. 1 trade partner, with more than 2.5 times as much trade as No. 2 Japan and 38 percent of the total.

What is unusual about trade through the first seven months if the number of countries with trade declines, a rarity not only in Los Angeles but across the country as import-export trade has generally increased month after month, year after year, for decades.

Trade with three Top 25 nations Japan, Malaysia and Germany fell more than $1 billion, compared to the same period in 2006 while trade with another three Philippines, Ecuador and Saudi Arabia also fell.

2nd annual L.A. TradeNumbers released (05/30/2007)

LA trade up at twice the national average (04/23/2007)

Los Angeles rips up the trade record book (02/13/2007)

$300 billion record set; next is new milestone with imports (02/01/2007)

Los Angeles poised to set U.S. trade record (12/11/2006)

LA trade continues march toward $300 billion (11/13/2006)

Deficit yes, but there is more balance, when viewed by nations (11/01/2006)

Six-month report: LA up 12 percent, slower than national average (08/30/2006)

A trifecta: Passing Japan, China is top destination for LA exports, in addition to imports and total trade (07/28/2006)

The nation's most important trade district continues its romance with fast growing Asia (03/15/2006)

LA trade growth at 11%
China, India, Ecuador are best performers (01/01/2006)