LOS ANGELES (CNS) — Cargo volume at the Port of Los Angeles in October fell to its lowest volume for the month since 2009, officials announced Tuesday, with ongoing labor negotiations with West Coast port workers among the factors that has shippers routing cargo to other ports.

The port, coming off the busiest calendar year in history in 2021, handled 678,429 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in October — a 25% dip from last October.

“The November numbers will be soft and so will December here in Los Angeles,” said Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles.

The port also reported 20 canceled sailings in October, and estimates another 20 combined cancellations over November and December.

Seroka, in a briefing Tuesday, also blamed the low numbers on some shipments being delivered in June and July — which he referred to as the “peak season” — well ahead of the normal holiday cycle. He added that consumers were no longer purchasing durable items such as furniture and appliances en masse, like they were when the coronavirus pandemic began.

Talks involving employers and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents at least 20,000 port workers on the West Coast, have been ongoing since their contract expired in July.

Seroka said he has been speaking to both parties regularly and that traditionally, labor negotiations in the shipping industry can be lengthy.

“It takes time,” he said. “Although it’s gone on longer than many of us like, it’s hard work, but it’s got to get done right.”

Seroka said a labor agreement would provide the marketplace with more confidence.

“Even though both sides have put out two jointly signed media releases stating they will not strike nor lockout, there’s still skepticism,” Seroka said. “That’s why this has got to be anchored and bring that marketplace back to a level where they feel that certainty of a cargo flow and getting to market on time.”

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who also spoke at the briefing, expressed confidence that workers would not strike.

“I know the players,” Garcetti said. “I know their hearts. I know they’ve got some issues to work out that can sometimes be dramatic in the end, but I have great confidence in them. The disagreement or any distance or remaining issues are so much more minor than past years, where we’ve been able to resolve.”

The mayor added that he also had confidence that “if you’re booking LA that you will confidently get your cargo moved.”

Rather than going through the Port of Los Angeles, cargo has been increasing in ports around the East Coast and Gulf Coast. Seroka said he gets “absolutely no satisfaction out of seeing backlog and jams at other ports around the country.”

“Because simply put, it makes our nation less competitive economically if we’ve got this movement from one coast to another,” he said. “Everything gets snarled up.”