Long Beach Harbor
What’s almost as tall as the Empire State Building and almost as wide as the 405 Freeway, all lanes? It’s the super-large cargo container ships that dock in the Port of Long Beach, practically next door to Downey, give or take twenty miles.
The Port of Long Beach, along with its neighboring Harbor of Los Angeles, are the two largest ports in the nation, and the key economic engine for Southern California. As Dr. Noel Hasagaba, chief commercial officer and Director of Commercial Operations told us, the Long Beach Harbor handles $180 billion in cargo every year and Long Beach welcomes 2,000 ships a year.
Noel held us fascinated with the many challenges Port managers have to consider. With more than 17 years of public and private sector experience, Noel has spanned a variety of industries and capacities. A graduate of the University of Southern California, he earned degrees in economics (BA and MA), business administration (BS) and urban planning (MPL). He earned his doctorate in public administration at the University of La Verne.
Harbor authorities have decided that with such valuable traffic, it is time for upgrading. The Port of Long Beach is the premier U.S. gateway for trans-Pacific trade and a trailblazer in innovative goods movement, safety and environmental stewardship.
New features in the $4 billion project include building a new $1.3 billion bridge to connect to Terminal Island. Bridge clearance will be raised from 155 feet to 205 feet, and the entrances will be widened too, for those mega-container ships. As part of the Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project, eastbound Ocean Boulevard between the Desmond Bridge and downtown Long Beach will be closed for up to 36 months starting Wednesday, Jan. 27.
When completed in 2018, the new bridge will include six traffic lanes and four emergency shoulders, a higher clearance to accommodate new generations of cargo ships, and the Mark Bixby Memorial Bicycle and Pedestrian Path with scenic overlooks. The bridge project is a joint effort of Caltrans and the Port, with funding support from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro).
The “Big Pour” in September featured a highly choreographed event involving a stream of concrete trucks, huge pumps and dozens of workers. Contractors completed a critical “pile cap” that allowed crews to start erecting the first of two 515-foot-tall towers for the new bridge.
As Congressman Alan Lowenthal (D. Long Beach) said, “We have the biggest sustainable container terminal in the world.” Founded in 1911, the Port serves more than 140 shipping lines with connections to 217 seaports around the world. Goods moving through the Port reach every U.S. congressional district and help support nearly 1.5 million trade-related jobs across the nation, including 300,000 in Southern California.
So how does Long Beach compete for business with other terminals around the world? The short answer is quicker turnaround, from ship to dock to truck or rail, to consumer. Getting the edge on distribution matters enormously in competition.
Say that you are shipping goods from Shanghai, China, to Chicago, Illinois. Your competition on the one hand is the Panama Canal with final port in Houston or New Orleans, and then land transportation. Another strong competitor is the route from Shanghai in the opposite direction, through the Suez Canal and across the Atlantic to New York, and then by land to Chicago. What are some of the factors to consider?
The Suez Canal has lowered its fees compared to the Panama Canal, but that is partly to offset the dangers of piracy and the political situation. There are not threats like that here in Long Beach. Additionally, it has proven to be faster to ship via the Pacific than through Suez or the Panama Canal.
How to compete for business with the Port of Los Angeles? One way is by forging better vessel alliances. Prices can be brought down with lower berth charges. Long Beach has put in newer and better automation and infrastructure to allow quicker access to goods by eliminating long terminal delays. The Long Beach infrastructure is set up to give big box retailers a break, and they have increased efficiency for their dock-rail loading.
The year 2015 started off at a financial loss, but in the final two quarters of 2015, the Port of Long Beach recovered from systemic congestion and cargo diversion in the first quarter to deliver one of its strongest results on record. For only the third time in its 105-year history, Long Beach topped 7 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units, a standard container unit) during the year.
The Port of Long Beach is also called the Green Port, because of its efforts to reduce environmental impact. “Guided by our award-winning Green Port Policy,” Noel said, “we are reducing harmful air emissions from port-related operations. We are improving water quality in the harbor, protecting marine wildlife and implementing environmentally sustainable practices throughout the Port.”