As of late last week, there were no reports of diversions of cargo ships from the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast to L.A. area ports.

“We haven’t seen any sign of that yet, nor do we expect to in the near future,” said Dick McKenna, deputy executive director of the Marine Exchange of Southern California, which functions as the maritime operations center for the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

McKenna said other ports on or closer to the Gulf of Mexico especially the Port of Houston are able to handle the mostly non-containerized cargo that had been flowing into and out of New Orleans, including agricultural, petroleum and chemical products.

“We might get a random vessel or two, possibly something coming in from Asia, but beyond that, we’re expecting most of the cargo to go to Houston or adjacent ports,” he said.

There is also little prospect of additional oil tankers calling on local ports, despite President Bush’s order last Thursday authorizing more vessels to ship gasoline products to areas impacted by supply cutoffs. California, which requires a special blend of gasoline, receives only a tiny amount of petroleum products from the Gulf Coast.