Gene Seroka News

Cargo volume at the Port of Los Angeles jumped from July to August after business lost during the now-finished West Coast labor talks began returning, the top executive at the nation's busiest ocean trade gateway said on Thursday.That data comes as seaports on the U.S. West Coast are battling to regain market share lost to rivals on the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico during the 13-month union negotiations, and as ocean cargo volumes tumble from early pandemic highs.In August, the Port of Los Angeles handled 828,016 20-foot equivalent units, a measurement standard for ocean cargo.

The Longshore union and employers of 22,000 dockworkers at U.S. West Coast ports on Wednesday said they have reached a tentative deal on a new six-year contract, ending 13 months of talks and easing supply chain worries.The deal was reached with assistance from Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) employer group said in a joint statement.President Joe Biden, who dispatched Su to the negotiations in San Francisco earlier this week…

West Coast port employers and the union representing 22,000 workers have "overcome some sticking points" in tense labor talks that have entered their 13th month, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Tuesday.Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su is in San Francisco, where negotiations have been taking place, "meeting with all parties encouraging them to reach a resolution," Jean-Pierre said, adding that Su "has invaluable expertise working closely with these parties."Business groups are pressuring U.S.

The Pacific Maritime Association on Thursday said the largest longshore union local on the West Coast disrupted work at the nation's busiest seaport complex for the second week in a row, as labor talks covering 22,000 dockworkers from California to Washington state approach the one-year mark.Frustration is growing over the lack of resolution in the talks, which started in May.

The leader of the busiest U.S. seaport on Friday said February's cargo volume hit the lowest level since the start of the pandemic as inflation and economic upheaval hurt demand, and signaled that activity may not pick up until the second half of this year."This is a global phenomenon. We may not be at the height of the pandemic, but there are more container vessels sitting idle around the world today than at any time since it began," Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene…

Cargo volumes were down in November at the Port of Los Angeles, marking another month of declines at what was once the United States' busiest seaport. The port said in its cargo update briefing this week that it handled 639,344 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in November, a 21% decrease from the same month last year. Overall, the port has handled 7% less cargo in the first 11 months of 2022 compared to last year’s all-time record.November 2022 loaded imports reached 307,080 TEUs, down 24% compared to the previous year.

October volume at the busiest U.S. seaport fell to its lowest level since 2009 as shippers sent cargo to alternate trade gateways to avoid potential disruptions from ongoing West Coast port labor talks, Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said on Tuesday.The data comes as ocean trade activity returns to more normalized levels after booming in the early days of the COVID-19 crisis. Seaports like New York/New Jersey, Savannah and Houston have benefited from the uncertainty…

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), Port of Los Angeles, Port of Long Beach and C40 Cities have begun discussions to establish a green and digital shipping corridor between Singapore and the San Pedro Bay port complex. The corridor will focus on low- and zero-carbon fuels for bunkering, as well as digital tools to support deployment of low- and zero-carbon ships.This collaborative effort supports the Green Shipping Challenge launched during the World Leaders’ Summit at the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, this week.

The busiest U.S. seaport expects August imports to begin easing from record highs as retailers cancel orders in the wake of shoppers' pulling back from freewheeling pandemic spending, the executive director of the Port of Los Angeles said on Wednesday.The Port of Los Angeles and the adjacent Port of Long Beach handle more imports from China than any other U.S. ocean trade gateways, and their forecasts are considered to be an economic barometer."Imports will begin to ease somewhat.

California port leaders expect imports to rise as Shanghai, home to the world's busiest seaport, emerges from a two-month COVID-19 lockdown.The question is whether that release of pent-up goods will again swamp West Coast ports that have recently emerged from the pandemic's massive cargo wave, they and other experts said.The Port of Shanghai was open during the city's shutdown, but cargo flows still slowed. Area factories that make everything from Tesla electric vehicles to Apple laptops ran out of components and quarantines idled some truckers.As the city returns to normal…

North America's largest seaport said it is bolstering its cybersecurity readiness and enhancing its threat-sharing and recovery capabilities among supply chain stakeholders with the launch of its new state-of-the-art port community cyber defense solution.The Port of Los Angeles' Cyber Resilience Center (CRC) was designed through a collaborative process with participating stakeholders and will be operated by International Business Machines (IBM).“We must take every precaution against potential cyber incidents…

The number of container ships waiting to enter the busiest U.S. seaport complex hit a new record of 84 on Tuesday, as growing piles of empty containers crowd docks at the Southern California facility that has been racing to remove lingering imports.The conundrum illustrates the challenge faced by a U.S. government task force charged with tackling supply chain snarls that are contributing to product shortages and inflation.U.S. ports have been inundated with cargo since the pandemic shifted spending away from restricted entertainment like travel and dining out to physical goods.

America's top container ports Los Angeles and Long Beach are cracking down on ocean carriers whose containers linger on terminals as clogged U.S. seaports struggle to keep up with record box volumes.Under the new policy, developed in coordination with the Biden-Harris Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, U.S. Department of Transportation and multiple supply chain stakeholders, and set to take effect November 1, the ports will charge ocean carriers for each truck-bound container dwelling nine days or more and rail containers that sit for three days or more.

The Port of Los Angeles is beginning the hard work of convincing terminal operators, importers, warehouses owners and trucking firms to embrace moving more cargo at night."It's not a single lever we can pull today to open up all the gates," Executive Director Gene Seroka said on Thursday.On Wednesday, the White House gathered stakeholders including retailers Walmart and Home Depot, logistics firms United Parcel Service and FedEx, and electronics supplier Samsung. The companies…

The Flying Buttress once glided across the oceans carrying vital commodities like grain to all corners of the world.Now it bears a different treasure: Paw Patrol Movie Towers, Batmobile Transformers and Baby Alive Lulu Achoo dolls.The dry bulk cargo ship has been drafted into the service of retail giant Walmart, which is chartering its own vessels in an effort to beat the global supply chain disruptions that threaten to torpedo the retail industry's make-or-break holiday season."Chartering vessels is just one example of investments we've made to move products as quickly as possible," said Joe Metzger, U.S. executive vice president of supply-chain operations at Walmart…

Supply chain issues tied to liner shipping have been front page news throughout 2021; just about everyone agrees that there’s a problem. The underlying cause is right out of Economics 101: a surge in demand for moving containerized cargo, in the face of “inelastic” throughput capacity (which includes vessels and their landside interfaces to surface transportation, trucks and rail) that could not handle the swell, attributable to re-stocking of containerized cargo as economic activity recovered from the pandemic induced jolts.

Workers at the busiest U.S. seaport are plucking containers of toys off ships and out of massive stacks of cargo swamping docks at the Southern California trade gateway to get holiday gifts under trees in time for Christmas.“We’ve never had this much cargo,” Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said on Tuesday, when the port announced that imports spiked 25% during the month of November.With so much cargo flooding in ahead of Christmas, “we’re essentially in a triage situation…

The Port of Los Angeles and cargo shipping lines are diverting some ships to other West Coast ports as a six-month import surge strains capacity at the busiest gateway for ocean trade in the United States.Container lines such as Hapag Lloyd and CMA CGM are temporarily diverting some sailings to Oakland and other West Coast ports to ease record backlogs at the Port of Los Angeles and the adjacent Port of Long Beach. Sixty-two ships are anchored in San Pedro Bay, with an average wait of eight days to enter the Southern California port complex.

Amazon seller Bernie Thompson shifted half of his production out of China to reduce his business risks and still found himself in the crosshairs of logistical chaos besetting the movement of goods around the globe.A surge in demand for furniture, exercise equipment and other goods for shoppers sheltering at home in a worsening COVID-19 pandemic has upended normal trade flows.That has stranded empty cargo containers in the wrong places, spawning bottlenecks that now stretch from factories to seaports.

The Port of Los Angeles is working with IBM to design and operate a Port Cyber Resilience Center (CRC) at the U.S.' busiest container port.A $6.8 million, three-year agreement between the seaport and tech giant includes hardware, software and services to design, install, operate and maintain the first-of-its-kind system aimed at detecting and protecting against malicious cyber incidents potentially impacting cargo flow as well as improving the quality, quantity and speed of cyber…

Record cargo imports are causing delays that are rippling from the nation’s busiest U.S. port complex to other parts of the transportation network, port officials and other executives said.Total volume at the Port of Los Angeles hit 980,729 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) in October, up more than 27% versus the year earlier. Loaded imports, which accounted for more than half of shipments, jumped 29% - marking the third consecutive month of robust growth.The typical holiday shipping…

A record 60 container vessels are at anchor or adrift in the San Pedro Bay, waiting to be unloaded at the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach seaports and another 20 are due to arrive in coming days, a port executive said on Wednesday.With the pandemic still raging around the world, U.S. consumers have not fully resumed previous spending on restaurants and travel, yet they continue to splurge on goods ranging from appliances and home exercise equipment to sweatpants and toys.Volume at the Port of Los Angeles - the busiest U.S.

Members of Congress have joined state and local leaders in urging California officials to hasten COVID-19 vaccinations for workers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation's two busiest, hit hard by pandemic workforce disruptions and surging imports.As of Wednesday, 27 arriving container ships stood anchored off the twin ports complex waiting for berths to clear at terminals piled high with cargo from previous shipments, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern…