{"id":1157149,"date":"2023-02-18T13:12:25","date_gmt":"2023-02-18T18:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/beleaguered-los-angeles-port-pins-hopes-on-2nd-half-rebound\/1157149\/"},"modified":"2023-02-18T13:12:25","modified_gmt":"2023-02-18T18:12:25","slug":"beleaguered-los-angeles-port-pins-hopes-on-2nd-half-rebound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/beleaguered-los-angeles-port-pins-hopes-on-2nd-half-rebound\/1157149\/","title":{"rendered":"Beleaguered Los Angeles Port Pins Hopes On 2nd-Half Rebound"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Beleaguered Los Angeles Port Pins Hopes On 2nd-Half Rebound<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

By Greg Miller of FreightWaves<\/a>,<\/em><\/p>\n

Containerized imports to the Port of Los Angeles in January followed the same pattern as in neighboring Long Beach: up versus December but down year on year and down versus pre-COVID levels.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

It looks like it will get worse in Los Angeles before it gets better.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During a news conference on Thursday, Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka predicted \u201ca significant volume decline\u201d in February, with more canceled sailings in the weeks and months ahead and \u201ca softer market heading into the second quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Seroka does expect volumes to improve in the second half, with a return to a more traditional peak-season import pattern.\u00a0\u201cWhile last year we saw strong volumes in the first six months, 2023 is shaping up to be more robust in the back half of the year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Still no labor deal<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Seven and a half months after the West Coast port labor contract expired on July 1, 2022, there\u2019s still no deal. Seroka once again acknowledged the lack of a deal is affecting imports and pushing cargo to East and Gulf Coast ports and conceded \u201csome of that cargo may be lost for good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is still trepidation,\u201d Seroka said. \u201cThere are many transportation managers who couldn\u2019t go back to the boss for a third straight year and say, \u2018I got our cargo stuck in the jaws of congestion out in California.\u2019 To meet the criticism and to meet the conjecture that\u2019s out there, we\u2019ve got to get this collective bargaining agreement done and remove that from the discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seroka had previously predicted a new West Coast port labor contract in the February-March time frame. He sounded less confident about that Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith respect to timing, we\u2019re now at the outer edges of what historically has been the [longest period] of negotiations between these two sides,\u201d he said. \u201cIt may not get done in February or March, but I\u2019m still pretty confident that we\u2019ll see some real progress in the springtime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Mini-bump\u2019 in January<\/h3>\n

The Port of Los Angeles reported total throughput of 726,014 twenty-foot equivalent units, down 16% year on year (y\/y).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Imports came in at 372,040 TEUs, down 13% y\/y. Exports totaled 102,723 TEUs, up 3% y\/y. Empty containers totaled 251,251 TEUs, down 26% y\/y.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

On a positive note, Los Angeles\u2019 January imports were up 6% compared to December. That \u201cmini-bump\u201d can be attributed to \u201ccargo owners who pushed their product here ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays,\u201d said Seroka.<\/p>\n

West Coast vs. East Coast<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The unprecedented COVID-era import surge was in full swing at this time in 2022, meaning that y\/y comparisons at U.S. ports are down.<\/p>\n

Long Beach\u2019s imports plunged 32% y\/y in January, a much steeper fall than in Los Angeles. On the East Coast, January imports to Savannah were down 16% y\/y, with imports to Charleston, South Carolina, down 7%.<\/p>\n

In contrast, Long Beach did even better in January versus December than Los Angeles, with imports up 9% sequentially. Charleston\u2019s January imports were up 4% versus the month before, while Savannah\u2019s pulled back by 3%.<\/p>\n

The big divide between the East and West coasts can be seen in comparisons to the pre-pandemic period.\u00a0While Los Angeles was down 10% and Long Beach was down 15% compared to January 2020, Savannah\u2019s imports were up 12% over the same time frame and Charleston\u2019s were up 20%.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"
(Chart: American Shipper based on port data)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Seroka maintained that the shift from the West Coast to the East Coast is not all about recent labor issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s be clear. This cargo shift isn\u2019t new. It started more than 20 years ago,\u201d he said. \u201cSince 2002, the West Coast share of the trans-Pacific trade has declined from 80% to 56%. Right here at home in San Pedro Bay, the share of import volume has dropped from 50% of our nation\u2019s boxes down to 33%.<\/p>\n

\u201cCargo owners and decision makers tell us we\u2019re too expensive, overregulated and have complicated labor issues. Meanwhile, East and Gulf Coast ports have hired leadership aligned with policymakers and they partner together state to state with elected officials going to D.C. to get money for infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetween 2010 and 2020, we got left behind on federal investment here along the West Coast. East and Gulf Coast ports received more than $11 billion compared to just over $1.2 billion invested in West Coast ports during that 10-year span. And the early take on the bipartisan infrastructure bill: two projects for the West Coast compared to more than 30 for the East and Gulf coast ports.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nSat, 02\/18\/2023 – 17:00<\/span><\/p>\n

From:Zerohedge<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beleaguered Los Angeles Port Pins Hopes On 2nd-Half Rebound By Greg Miller of FreightWaves, Containerized imports to the Port of Los Angeles in January followed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1157149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-4R1H","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1157149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1157149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1157149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1157149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}