Cargo

Trade at international ports is on track to drop more than 10% this year, one of the steepest declines ever, according to a new maritime industry report. Cargo ships will carry 27 million fewer containers by year's end than they did in 2008 -- a reduction roughly equivalent to all of the cargo containers handled by the five busiest U.S. seaports in a typical year, according to London-based Drewry Shipping Consultants' Container Forecaster Report. "There has never been a decline like this before.

In another sign of how deep the global recession has become, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Friday reported their worst combined import statistics for September in nine years. September is often the busiest month at the nation's biggest port complex, making it one of the best barometers of the health of the economy and international trade. The port of Los Angeles received 309,078 containers packed with imported goods in September, representing a decline of 16% from the same month last year and 27% from September 2006, L.A.'s best month ever for imports.

As a West Coast contract covering 26,000 dockworkers ran out Tuesday evening, concern rippled among U.S. retailers about a possible strike -- even though talks are continuing. "From our perspective, it's critical that these negotiations get resolved peacefully and that a new contract gets put in place as quickly as possible," said Jonathan Gold, who focuses on supply-chain and customs issues as a vice president of the National Retail Federation, a trade group.

The House passed a broad domestic security bill Tuesday that requires all cargo on U.S.-bound ships and passenger planes to be scanned for explosives, expands programs to track weapons of mass destruction and bolsters intelligence gathering along the border. The bill, which implements many of the recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission, is the first in the 100-hour legislative drive spearheaded by Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.

If it were a hub for ships instead of trains, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp.'s Hobart rail yard would rank as the fourth-largest U.S. container port, behind Los Angeles, Long Beach and New York-New Jersey. The Hobart yard sits southeast of downtown Los Angeles on 245 acres of continuous movement. It's the busiest rail yard in the country for transferring cargo containers between trucks and trains.

The explosion of imports from Asia has turned Southern California into the nation's loading dock. More than 40% of the goods that come to U.S. shores in truck-size cargo containers flow through the region's twin ports to destinations in every state, and 28% of exports from around the country leave through the local harbors, a new study found.

It's been a vexing, if little publicized, dilemma in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks: The thorough screenings that passengers' bags are subjected to do not extend to most cargo hoisted into the bellies of airliners. Lawmakers hope to change that soon, starting with a pilot program this summer in a drafty hangar at San Francisco International Airport.

L.A. County officials on Wednesday unveiled plans for an "inland port" in the Antelope Valley -- a would-be hub more than 70 miles north of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach that is aimed at reducing heavy truck congestion throughout the region's freeways. The proposal comes as officials project a 400% increase in goods movement through the ports over the next 30 years, with transportation experts predicting that all those extra big rigs would further clog freeways.

A terminal operator at the Port of Los Angeles will lose three customers that move about $40 million in cargo each year when those shipping lines shift their business to the neighboring Port of Long Beach in November, officials said Thursday. The decision represents a loss for TraPac terminal and the Port of Los Angeles. The three companies, all based in Asia, send 12,000 cargo containers a month through the terminal, and the ports gain $75 in income from each container.

SACRAMENTO -- Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is withholding city support for a state bill that would impose a container fee in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach aimed at easing congestion and air pollution, insisting it be changed to help with the $1.5-billion cost of replacing two major bridges. With the bill by state Sen.