A $1.49 billion container terminal at the Port of Long Beach is coming online
Long Beach Is putting the finishing work on a $1.49 billion, nearly 11-year redevelopment project that aims to consolidate Terminals F and E into a single continuous, 304-acre container terminal that will provide 3.5 million teU capacity to the Port of Long Beach.
"That terminal, by itself, would rank as the sixth-largest port in the United States," Said Mario Cordelo, executive director of the Port of Long Beach, in a video news conference. "We've electrified the transportation of goods from ship to yard. Dockworkers have been retrained to operate the control center and maintain the new machinery. The dock is a model of environmental protection, with 100% shore power for the ships, yard optimisation to reduce set truck trips, solar panels for the parking lots, and LEED Gold (certified), zero-emission operations for the buildings also essential."
The port commission approved the project in 2009. Construction of the first phase began in 2011 and was completed in 2016 when the dock welcomed its first ship. By 2017, the second phase of the project was completed, and in June, the third and final phase of the terminal was substantially completed.
As surging freight volumes at local ports become the new normal, the terminal is coming online. "We're moving about 19 million teUs this year in the SAN Pedro Bay complex, [and] I think that number is not going to decrease in the next few years, it's going to increase, so I think we need to start thinking about tomorrow and not looking at old data," Cordero said.
Cordero's forecast was supported by record cargo traffic in July, when the port handled 784,845 teUS last month, up 4.2 percent from the same month in 2020 and a record. Imports rose 1.6 per cent to 382,940 teUS while exports fell 20.7 per cent to 109,951 teus. The number of empty containers shipped back overseas jumped 22.8% to 291,955 teUs. The record-breaking July marks the 12th time in the past 13 months that the Port of Long Beach has broken a monthly shipping record. By July, ports had handled 5,538,673 teUS of cargo, up 32.3 percent from the first seven months of 2020.
"The record shipments were driven by a surge in imports, and consumer spending, which began to pick up in 2020, has slowed recently, though demand for home exercise equipment, new appliances and other goods remains strong," said Cordero. "We foresee that shippers will need large volumes of capacity to meet consumer demand for imports."
