Friday, December 7, 2012

LA/Long Beach Ports Offer Terminals Financial Relief


Port terminals that were negatively affected by the eight-day strike at the Los Angeles/Long Beach harbor complex will have some cargo fees waived to provide financial relief and help expedite container movement, the ports have announced.

The two ports normally assess fees on cargo containers that linger on its terminals beyond a certain grace period, but they have waived their portion of cargo fees incurred or impacted by the forced closures.

At the Port of Los Angeles, free time for demurrage has been extended to all merchandise from Nov. 27 through Dec. 7, meaning that merchandise on port terminals during that period are not subject to demurrage.

At the Port of Long Beach, a similar waiver period for cargo fees has been established for the three terminals that were shut down by the strike – Long Beach Container Terminal at Pier F, International Transportation Service at Pier G and Total Terminals Intl. at Pier T.

“What we want to do is minimize the impact of the closure on our customers,” Port of Long Beach Executive Director Chris Lytle explained in a statement. “We will continue working closely with all the stakeholders for a smooth transition to normal operations.”

Importers, exporters or their agents should contact service providers such as ocean carriers or terminal operators for more details on cargo fees.

ILWU Local 63 and the LA/Long Beach Harbor Employers Association reached a tentative agreement the night of Dec. 4 and all terminals at both ports were open the following morning.

“Hundreds of thousands of jobs are dependent on our local ports, so the work now begins to clear the backlog and to get our economic engine humming again,” Lytle said.