Smoother Flow of Cargo Is Expected

With more cargo than ever pouring through the Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors, some delays are inevitable, but a floating traffic jam like last year’s is unlikely to be repeated, shipping experts said Tuesday.

Ambitious efforts to head off congestion problems at the nation’s busiest trade gateway appear to be reaping results, according to shipping lines and maritime officials at a conference sponsored by the Port of Long Beach. Still, some importers are skeptical and believe that national transportation improvements are needed to avert disaster.

What can’t be disputed: International trade is setting new highs at the twin ports. At the Long Beach harbor, which is absorbing most of the Southern California cargo increases so far this year, container traffic through May is running 26% above last year’s record pace.

“Whatever forecast crystal ball I had was shattered in 2004,” said Doug Tilden, chief executive of Marine Terminals Corp., an Oakland-based operator of five terminals in Los Angeles and Long Beach. “But our industry has geared up for more traffic than we are seeing now.”

At the worst of the 2004 cargo logjam, which began building in late spring, more than 90 vessels were lined up waiting to be unloaded. The ports didn’t have enough workers, railroads were swamped and terminal gates weren’t open at nights and on weekends. Retailers suffered heavy losses from delays in product deliveries.

Since then, substantial changes have been made in an effort to speed the flow of goods, representatives from each link in the international trade chain said.

Importers are shipping earlier, and shipping lines are increasing their use of other West Coast ports and routes through the Suez Canal to the East Coast.

Union Pacific and BNSF railroads have added equipment and workers. So have the ports. In fact, there are now so many dockworkers that nonunion laborers are averaging one day of employment a week rather than nearly five days a week last summer.

And next month, the oft-delayed plan to keep terminal gates open longer hours is set to begin.

The extra hours won’t help unless more truck drivers are hired and wages are improved, said Bob Curry Jr., chief executive of California Multimodal Inc., a Compton trucking company.

“If drivers can’t make more money and get more jobs driving at night, they won’t do it and you won’t be able to move the freight,” Curry said.

Some retailers are concerned that the port’s efforts will be insufficient.

“No port region offers us a risk-free scenario,” said John Joseph, senior manager of international transportation services for Columbus, Ohio-based Limited Brands Inc., whose operations include Victoria’s Secret and Bath and Body Works.

Getting imported goods through Southern California to Columbus takes 10 to 12 days, up from five days in 1995, Joseph said. Other ports, such as those in the Pacific Northwest, are having an even harder time handling cargo traffic this year, he said.

The growing traffic tie-ups prompted a call last month from a coalition of big retailers, including Limited Brands and Target Corp., for significant expansion of direct rail and highway connections to the nation’s container ports.

However, the coalition’s white paper on the effort, which it dubbed the National Marine Container Transportation System, didn’t specify how the projects would be funded.

We have to “stop discussing and start working on solutions,” Joseph said.

Forcing it all has been an explosion in Chinese exports. Every 10 minutes, a ship belonging to French shipping line CMA-CGM leaves a Chinese port laden with goods for the United States or Europe, said Frank Baragona, president of CMA-CGM America Inc.

Los Angeles and Long Beach will remain “the big gorilla in the room,” said Dick Steinke, executive director of the Port of Long Beach. “We are well along in handling more than what other ports even try to do.”