As Chinese business shutdowns extended past the traditional Lunar New Year holiday into February, and workers stayed home from factories and ports, “it became pretty clear…that we were looking at something much bigger than maybe some had thought,” Mr. Seroka said. “The first quarter of this year I project that we’re going to be down 15% year-over-year, with a heavy bit of that related to the coronavirus,” he said. The decline has accelerated, he said, with February cargo volumes expected to be down 25% from the same month a year as the epidemic’s impact ripples through supply chains. Los Angeles handled the equivalent of more than 705,000 containers last February, so the projected decline would mean about 176,000 fewer containers moving through the port this month. About 9.3 million boxes passed through the port in 2019. Shipping volumes out of China have plunged as the shutdowns in […]