The Seattle Times Business Newsletter Column.

Byline: Stephen H. Dunphy

Feb. 25--Trade works in funny ways at times, mostly because of the logistics involved in moving so much across long distances. For example, the Port of Seattle had a 4 percent decline in container volume in January compared with January 2003 -- and port staff members are happy about it.

How can that be? Isn't a decline in traffic a sign of weakness? How can a decline be good news when Southern California ports are reporting huge gains? The Port of Long Beach reported last week the total number of containers handled in January climbed by 12.7 percent to 376,956 TEUs, or 20-foot equivalent units, the industry standard measure. The …