The ports extended their comeback streak in April, each posting double-digit gains over last year.
The Port of Los Angeles had a 12% year-over-year gain in cargo movement last month, while the Port of Long Beach similarly posted 14.4% growth. Respectively, it was the ninth and eighth straight month of gains for the container ports, which combine to be the busiest in the nation.
“Four months into 2024, our numbers remain very strong,” said Port of L.A. Executive Director Gene Seroka in his monthly media briefing.
Dockworkers at the Port of L.A. moved 416,929 TEUs – 20-foot equivalent units, the standard containerized cargo measurement – of loaded imports, representing a 21% gain from last year. Exports were up significantly, with the 133,046 TEUs being a 51% jump from last year; for L.A., it has now been 11 straight months of export growth. On top of all that, the Port of L.A. processed 220,262 empty TEUs.
In Long Beach, meanwhile, dockworkers moved 364,665 import TEUs, an increase of 16.3%, while moving 99,266 export TEUs, a decline 19.9%. That port also processed 287,493 empty TEUs.
“Imports are steadily climbing as we continue to work with industry partners to rebuild our market share,” Port of Long Beach Chief Executive Mario Cordero said in a statement. “We are strengthening our competitiveness with our brand of operational excellence, customer service and ongoing infrastructure investments that will keep cargo moving efficiently well into the future.”
For the first four months of the year, L.A. has moved 3.15 million TEUs while Long Beach has moved 2.75 million TEUs – increases, respectively, of nearly 25% and 16%.
Funding reform beefs up maintenance dollars
Executives at both ports this month celebrated significant boosts in funding for harbor maintenance.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced this month that the Port of L.A. will receive about $58 million from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund this year. The Port of Long Beach will receive an estimated $54 million.
The trust fund, which was first created in 1986, collects a 0.125% tax on imports and was initially meant to provide funding to ports in need of dredging to maintain depth and width of federal navigation channels. The Corps of Engineers administers the funding and assists with planning.
The ports here, alongside others, have for years lobbied for reform to the trust fund because they contributed more than half of the total revenues for the fund but typically received less than 3% of it because of their naturally deep channels. This resulted in the fund swelling to a surplus of billions of dollars.
Reforms were enacted through the Water Resources Development Act and the CARES Act, both passed and signed in 2020.
“We have long pushed for a fair share of Harbor Maintenance Tax funding to ports like ours, which traditionally have contributed more to the fund than they received,” Cordero said in a statement.
Both ports face serious maintenance itineraries, to say nothing of their other investments for the Clean Air Action Plan to pivot to zero-emission equipment. These projects include dredging, seismic upgrades, wharf and fender repairs, pile replacements, sediment removal or remediation, rock dyke repair, and other improvements to slips and channels – to the tune of $6.7 billion for L.A. and $2.3 billion for Long Beach.
“We have important harbor infrastructure projects in the pipeline and this funding will go a long way to accelerating these repairs and ensuring the Port of Los Angeles’ infrastructure remains world class,” Seroka said in a statement.
