A snapshot of why there are so many containers rolling by the Needles cam everyday...

An article keeping up on some of the recent rises in container volumes at POLA-POLB due to changing global trade patterns. Strikes bad for West Coast, droughts bad for the Panamax, and significantly less import/export traffic from/to China...

Reuters-MSN feed on LA Ports traffic

The world did not quite end, as had been previously predicted...

Panamax routing costs (often higher, due to longer and slower travel times, and often requiring container resorting/"switching" costs, to make up boat loads for final destination ports in Panama) to Gulf and East Coast ports were only worth it for higher value cargo last Spring with a strike looming. That switch ended the minute the West Coast strike threat ebbed, due to a huge local market (most of SW and NW Mexico with over 50 million people) and generally better transit times via LA-LB/via US SW RR gateways for higher value imports, than direct by sea routing to the East Coast.