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Container volumes at the Port of Long Beach, Calif., were mixed in September, with imports up 0.7 percent to 265,102 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and exports down 2.8 percent to 114,902 TEUs compared with September 2011.

Overall, total cargo volume declined 2.9 percent to 512,020 TEUs. Empty container volume fell 9.4 percent to 132,016 TEUs.

Through 2012's first nine months, container volume dipped 4.4 percent year over year to just under 4.4 million TEUs primarily because of continuing weakness in the economy and cutbacks in ship calls by several niche vessel operators in late 2011 and early 2012, port officials said in a prepared statement. Imports and exports decreased 4 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively.

At the Port of Los Angeles, total container volume in September rose 5.6 percent to 744,923 TEUs. Imports increased 3.4 percent to 385,250 TEUs, exports declined 2.6 percent to 172,432 TEUs, total loaded container volume inched up 1.5 percent to 557,683 TEUs and empty container volume climbed 20 percent to 187,240 TEUs.

Through the year's first nine months, the port's total volume increased 5.2 percent to about 6.2 million TEUs compared with the same 2011 period.

Meanwhile, the Port of Vancouver USA has obtained a $5.7 million grant from the Washington State Department of Commerce to help develop an industrial park. The 58-acre Centennial Industrial Park is near a shipping channel, freeways, and BNSF Railway Co. and Union Pacific Railroad lines.

The grant will be used to pay for infrastructure improvements at the park to support the future development of manufacturing, production, warehouse and other space. Infrastructure work is slated to begin this month and be completed by July 2013.