The Pulse of the Port

The Pulse of the Port

BY KATHERINE HOUSE

In typical chamber fashion, the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce offers potential members a list of categories to designate when submitting a membership application. What’s not so typical? Categories such as stevedoring contractors, marine surveyors, port pilots and customs house brokers. These business types reflect Long Beach’s significant role in the shipping world: it is home to the second largest container port in the United States.

“We’re Ground Zero for containerized shipping,” explains Mario Cordero, executive director, Port of Long Beach, and a member of the Long Beach Chamber’s board of directors. If combined, the Port of Long Beach and the adjacent Port of Los Angeles, the country’s largest, would be the world’s ninth busiest port complex by container volume.

“To say the port is an economic engine of our community would be a huge understatement,” says Randy Gordon, CCE, IOM, president and CEO of the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. Indeed, a recent economic impact study showed that the port supports one in five jobs in Long Beach (more than 51,000). That translates into $3.2 billion in wages annually.

From his office on the 16 th floor of the aptly named One World Trade Center, Gordon can watch ships coming in and cranes unloading colorful cargo containers. “It’s an extraordinary sight,” he says. Each ship delivering goods to Long Beach carries thousands of TEUs, or twenty-foot equivalent units. Currently as many as 19,000 per ship, but typically 12,000 to 14,000. These vessels “can’t call on every port on the West Coast,” says Gordon, because of the size of their draft. As a result, some cranes used at the port are taller than high-rise buildings in small cities.

Cordero says it’s “eye-opening to see the movement of commerce” at the port. “Whether it’s a car you own, furniture in your household or any type of consumer goods, it comes from somewhere.” People unfamiliar with port operations are surprised to learn that products unloaded in Long Beach are shipped all over the country by truck or rail. Cordero suggests, half seriously, that the port should buy billboard space in the Midwest advertising its role in commerce.

The economic impact study showed that after California, Minnesota, Illinois, Texas and Wisconsin export the highest value of goods through the Port, while New Jersey, New York, Texas and Illinois receive the highest value of imports after California. Ninety percent of port business is conducted with East Asia; trade with China, South Korea and Hong Kong leads the way. Cordero notes that 70 percent of imports and 40 percent of exports are with China.

Last year, the port had its best year ever, moving 8.1 million TEUs of commerce (worth $200 billion), despite the “unstable business environment” caused by factors such as tariffs, says Cordero. He remains confident that there will be a “final resolution” of trade talks that “will bring stability in the business community needed for continued growth.”

3,520 acres of land

500+ employees

68 gantry cranes

62 berths

35 miles of waterfront

22 shipping terminals

10 piers

Source: Port of Long Beach

Cordero says those attending the ACCE convention will be able to witness construction of a new $1.5 billion bridge connecting the Port of Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles. Scheduled to be completed in late 2019 and spanning 8,800 feet in length, its height will allow larger ships to access both ports. The bridge project is part of a 10-year, $4 billion capital program to upgrade the Port of Long Beach’s infrastructure, which includes the $1.5 billion Long Beach Container Terminal project. That upgrade will allow the new terminal to move twice the cargo with half the air pollution, according to the port’s 2018 annual report.

The Port of Long Beach prides itself on being a leader in environmental stewardship. Its Green Port Policy was adopted in 2005; a 2017 update includes zero emission goals for cargo handling equipment by 2030 and for drayage trucks by 2035. “No other port [in the country] has this goal,” boasts Cordero, who believes other ports will “mirror” what Long Beach is doing at some point.

The Port and the Chamber Gordon estimates that more than 100 chamber members are directly related to port activities, including tugboat operators. Typically, an executive of the port serves on the chamber’s board; Cordero’s term marks the first time in Gordon’s 25-year tenure that the port’s executive director has done so.

ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE PORT OF LONG BEACH IT SUPPORTS:

51,090

jobs in Long Beach (20% of total)

576,350

jobs in Southern California (5%)

705,430

jobs in California (3.1%)

2.6 MILLION

jobs in U.S. (1.4%)

Source: Port of Long Beach:Economic Impact Study

Fittingly, a chamber business council, the International Business Association of Southern California, hosts an annual State of Trade and Transportation Luncheon. “New Developments in Resolving International Disputes,” to be held in late June 2019, aims to educate importers, exporters and international trade professionals on when arbitration, litigation or mediation should be used.

Gordon describes the port as a strong corporate citizen. “No one gives back [to the community] more than the port,” he says. Indeed, the port is one of 10 diamond-level members of the chamber’s 2018–19 Chairman’s Circle.

“Our relationship with the chamber to the core is our relationship with businesses,” says Cordero. “A lot of business enterprises have relationships with the port.” He credits Gordon for his role in the community. “Randy’s done a great job of elevating the port’s profile over the years,” says Cordero.

Although port lands are operated in trust by the city on behalf of the state of California, the port is managed by the mayor-appointed Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners and generates its own revenue. One challenge in the past, Gordon says, has been to prevent local politicians from becoming too involved in port operations. When that happens, the chamber has “weighed in” and encouraged officials to let the port remain autonomous.

Says Gordon, “I just can’t imagine how life in Long Beach would be without the port.”

Katherine House is an award-winning business writer who lives in Iowa City, Iowa. She has contributed several articles to Chamber Executive, including those about disaster recovery, the Santa Train in Appalachia, tiered dues structures and a charter school in Louisiana.