The largest U.S. gateway for seaborne imports from China is projecting a 25 percent drop in container volumes this month as the economic impact of the coronavirus spreads across shipping operations far from the outbreak, the Wall Street Journal reported. Container ship operators have canceled 40 sailings at the Port of Los Angeles between Feb. 11 and April 1, mostly for vessels coming from China, port Executive Director Gene Seroka said. That amounts to a little more than one-quarter of the overall number of ships that would typically call at the port during that time, he said.Los Angeles handled the equivalent of more than 705,000 containers last February, so the projected decline would mean about 176,000 fewer containers moving through the port this month. About 9.3 million boxes passed through the port in 2019. Shipping volumes out of China have plunged as the shutdowns in the wake of the outbreak crimp industrial production, with ocean carriers warning that canceled trips will take a toll on earnings. A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, the world’s biggest containership operator, has canceled more than 50 sailings from China to the rest of the world since late January.
