The Port of Long Beach saw volumes surge in July — its busiest record for the month —  despite economic woes putting brakes on consumer spending.

In an announcement, North America's second-busiest port reported to moving 785,843 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in July, a slim 0.13% increase from the previous record set in July 2021.

It added that imports declined 1.8% to 376,175 TEUs, while exports were down 0.5% to 109,411 TEUs.

"Port of Long Beach had its busiest July on record despite a cooldown in consumer spending," the gateway said.

With the July result, the Port of Long Beach noted that it has broken monthly records in six out of the last seven months.

The Port has moved 5,793,621 TEUs during the first seven months of 2022, up 4.6% from the same period last year.

For the period, the Port of Long Beach noted that empty containers moved through the Port were up 2.8% to 300,257 TEUs.

"We are continuing to seek solutions to improve efficiency as a record-breaking number of containers moves through the Port," said Mario Cordero, executive director of the Port of Long Beach.

"We hope to relieve some of the stress points by continuing to support a transition of the entire supply chain to 24/7 operations and ensuring our industry partners can track containers with our new Supply Chain Information Highway data solution," he added.

Port of Long Beach said the economy is not necessarily in a recession, but weaker domestic demand confirms it is rapidly downshifting amid stubbornly high inflation and aggressive tightening by the Federal Reserve.

It said that consumer spending rose a modest 1% nationally, attributed to an increase in spending on services that offset a decline in purchasing goods.