About 9.2 million TEUs flowed through the Port of Los Angeles last year, the fourth busiest year on record, Executive Director Gene Seroka announced at the recent virtual Pacific Merchant Shipping Association’s sixth annual State of the Port of Los Angeles.
The port saw cargo volumes surge in the last half of 2020 by 50 percent over the first half of 2020, according to the port, which finished the year about 1.5 percent down from 2019. There was a 94 percent jump in the week leading up to Christmas compared to the same time in 2019.
“Our container business in 2020 was the most erratic we have ever seen, with volumes plunging nearly 19 percent in the first five months of the year, followed by an unprecedented second-half surge,” Seroka said. “Our ILWU longshore workforce did a great job adapting to the huge swings in volume, as did port truckers and everyone else involved in moving cargo through our Port. In a year of great difficulty, we are extremely grateful for the tenacity and resolve of all of our partners.”
Seroka also spoke about prioritizing the creation of more jobs, growing cargo, speeding up the development of zero emission technology and modernizing and optimizing the supply chain.
“If we want America to improve as a leader in global trade, we need nationwide port data connectivity with agreed-upon data standards and open architecture system that provides interconnectivity between major U.S. ports, service providers and the freight they move,” said Seroka.
In his speech, Seroka introduced the creation of The Control Tower, the latest in Port Optimizer™ cloud-based data solutions. Developed with Wabtec, The Control Tower will offer “new levels of metrics and data including real-time port level views of turn times, truck capacity management information and detailed velocity metrics,” according to the port.
Tuesday, January 19, 2021
