It took ten years for the crucial ports in Long Beach and Los Angeles to implement a two-shift schedule to handle more goods. The ports would like to implement a third shift and stay open around the clock. However, it’s uncertain when this can be realized, management acknowledges.
LONG BEACH – The US container ports in Long Beach and Los Angeles face massive growth in container freight volumes in the years to come, which puts pressure on the two harbors currently plagued by great delays and a long line of idle ships to optimize operations.
Last year, the two ports handled 20.1 million teu compared to 15 million teu in 2015. In eight years, 2030, however, the ports expect to have to handle 28.3 million teu, which will grow further to 40 million teu by 2040, according to Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero.
It took ten years to really have a robust use of second shift
Mario Cordero, Executive Director, Port of Long Beach
Long Beach and Los Angeles are the most important US container ports, and for many months they have attempted to optimize operations in order to get rid of the heaps of piled-up containers. But in one respect, especially, developments have been slow: the implementation of three-shift schedules making it possible to keep the terminals open around the clock.
”It took ten years to really have a robust use of second shift,” said Cordero during transport conference TPM22 in Long Beach last week.
He continued:
”We are six to eight years away from 28-29 million TEU in this complex – shouldn’t we proceed to introduce a third shift?”
Chinese ports open 24/7
The large Chinese ports that load the majority of goods going to the US west coast work around the clock, but Cordero cannot say when the third shift could become reality in Long Beach and Los Angeles.
”It will take time, but we are not inventing the wheel here. The ports of origin are 24/7,” Cordero said.
The all-encompassing challenge for the ports when it comes to changing work schedules is the powerful International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which has managed to protract the implementation of third shifts while also opposing automation, so US ports are lagging behind both Asian and European ports on that front.
Cordero didn’t mention the ILWU directly, but he didn’t hide the fact that the transition to 24-hour operations is a long-term project.
”I’ll be the first to admit it’s difficult to have a short-term solution, but the good thing is that it is not a conversation anymore (…) It’s no longer a debate. It is a robust conversation where people have now come on board,” Cordero said, adding:
”I haven’t spoken to a major stakeholder who said this is a bad idea. In fact, they say: ’It is a good idea, but how do we do it?’”
Negotiations to start in April
Employers at US ports are set to conclude negotiations on a new collective agreement with port workers in the ILWU this summer. The negotiations will commence in April, and there is concern in the container industry that ILWU members will make use of the large bottlenecks and extended delays on the container market in the talks.
During previous negotiations, port workers have caused major delays by way of labor protests, and in the current situation, US port workers would quickly be able to cause additional chaos in global supply chains if they worsen the current delays in Long Beach and Los Angeles.
It will take time, but we are not inventing the wheel here. The ports of origin are 24/7
Mario Cordero, Executive Director, Port of Long Beach
Cordero emphasized that the terminals in Long Beach and Los Angeles have succeeded in reducing the bottlenecks in recent months.
The lines of container ships waiting outside the two Californian ports, which in January counted 109 vessels, had been brought down to 58 last week, said Cordero, while 80,000 empty containers have been removed from terminals, where they occupied space and blocked the entry of new goods.
The ports have gotten rid of the empty containers by threatening to implement dwell fees for empty boxes lying at the harbors for too long.
”The threat alone made things happen. We’ve now reduced the volumes of idle containers by 70 percent,” Cordero said.
English edit: Jonas Sahl Hollænder
