With a tentative labor contract waiting for ratification, the push is on to bring back cargo that migrated to Gulf and East Coast ports beginning in August 2022 back to the Los Angeles gateway.
Port of L.A. Executive Director Gene Seroka was to be on a plane Wednesday night for the first of two trips planned just this month to Washington, D.C., seeking federal dollars and support.
“Now the real work begins,” Seroka said Wednesday, July 12, at his monthly virtual press conference.
There was also some good news: June cargo numbers edged up, thanks to an early start of what’s known as the port’s “peak season” when fall goods begin to arrive from Asia.
More than 833,000 twenty-foot units (the industry’s standard for measuring shipping containers) flowed in during the month of June, Seroka said, “just 5% off from last June’s all-time record” and the port’s strongest monthly performance since July 2022.
But July 2023, Seroka added, looks to be a softer month and the 4.1 million TEUs that have been processed since January — at what is now 2023’s half-way mark — is a 24% decline from the same period in 2022. Seroka still anticipates a stronger second half of 2023.
The Port of Long Beach’s June cargo numbers also are expected to be released soon but were not available Wednesday.
It all makes bringing back between 10% and 15% of the L.A. cargo that has strayed to other ports — much of it due to concerns about the unresolved labor issues — even more urgent for the West Coast gateway.
So far, Seroka said, “I’ve not seen a massive shift of cargo owners coming back,” but added: “Realistically speaking, I like our chances.”
Appearing with Seroka this month was Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su who flew to San Francisco earlier this month to assist in the stalled contract talks between the International Longshore and Labor Union and the Pacific Maritime Association.
“My plan was to go there to meet with the ILWU and PMA…
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