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After setting a volume record in 2010, the Port of Long Beach, Calif., registered a drop in 2011. Containerized cargo totaled 6.06 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs), down 3.2 percent compared with 2010.

Imports fell 3.3 percent to 3 million TEUs, exports declined 3.6 percent to 1.5 million TEUs and empties decreased 2.7 percent to 1.5 million TEUs.

Volume primarily was impacted by the late 2010 departure of California United Terminals (CUT), which accounted for about one-tenth of overall container traffic, port officials said in a prepared statement. Adjusting for CUT's departure, the port’s remaining six container terminals posted a volume gain of 8.1 percent in 2011, they said.

In December, the port handled 509,944 TEUs, down 2.6 percent year over year, but a more modest decline after months of double-digit decreases, port officials said. Imports fell 3.2 percent to 248,609 TEUs and exports dropped 8.4 percent to 129,229 TEUs.

Despite the down year in 2011, the port is preparing to expand capacity for projected volume increases in the long term. More than $4 billion worth of capital improvement projects are planned for the coming decade, including construction of a Middle Harbor Project, which calls for combining two existing terminals into a state-of-the-art container facility featuring double the capacity.