U.S. seaports had a tough end to 2019 with a 10.6% year over year drop in inbound containerized shipments in December. The west coast ports saw the worst performance with Los Angeles and Long Beach suffering a drop of 22.3% and 15.5% respectively due to their higher-than-average exposure to China. Shipments from China have declined due to tariffs as well as the timing effect resulting from tariff worries in late 2018 and fall 2019. The east coast ports weren’t immune. New York’s total inbound traffic fell by 7.2% in December after a 1.8% improvement in the prior three months. It wasn’t ...