Cargo Containers

After a six-month investigation by the Sheriff's Department, three people were arrested on charges of stealing cargo containers from the Port of Long Beach. Max Burkhardt, 63, his wife, Helen Burkhardt, 58, both of Alta Loma, and Marcelo Espinoza, 45, of Long Beach, were arrested Wednesday at Burkhardt Storage Service in Fontana, Deputy Steve Sciacca said. They were booked at the San Bernardino Detention Center on charges of grand theft, receiving stolen property and conspiracy, the deputy said.

The Obama administration is urging union dockworkers and a management group to "continue their work at the negotiating table to get a deal done as quickly as possible" to avoid a strike that could idle 14 East and Gulf Coast seaports. The word that President Obama is keeping a close eye on the ports' labor situation came from Obama spokesman Matt Lehrich. The labor union -- the International Longshoremen's Assn. -- and a group known as the U.S. Maritime Alliance are closing in on the end of a 90-day contract extension.

A divided City Council has decided that metal cargo containers must be shipped out of town within three years, but the council did not close the door on them completely. By a 3-2 vote Jan. 23, the council introduced a new law enforcing the city's widely ignored ban against shipping containers. The fate of the huge metal boxes, which are primarily used for storage, is far from settled, however.

The nation's retailers, manufacturers and farmers are bracing for a possible strike that could idle U.S. ports all along the Eastern Seaboard and Gulf Coast. That walkout could begin as early as Sunday after the midnight Saturday expiration of a 90-day extension of a contract between the International Longshoremen's Assn. and several shipping lines, terminal operators and port associations. It would be the first strike by the ILA in 35 years. U.S. military shipments and so-called "bulk" cargo that is not carried in 20-foot to 40-foot long steel cargo containers would not be affected.

The Port of Los Angeles imported nearly 117,000 more cargo containers than it exported over a recent 20-month period, heightening concerns in Wilmington about the large number of empty containers stored there. "At what point do we have enough?" harbor-area Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores asked port officials at a Los Angeles City Council committee meeting last week. "Are we going to store them forever?"

Fifteen Chinese nationals who crossed the Pacific Ocean inside a squalid shipping container were arrested Monday morning at a cargo terminal in the Port of Los Angeles, federal authorities reported. Immigration and Naturalization Service officials said they found the group in a 40-foot cargo container from Hong Kong that had been unloaded from a freighter on Terminal Island.

The Port of Los Angeles, the nation's second-busiest harbor after neighboring Long Beach, handled a record number of cargo containers in its most recent fiscal year, a trend driven almost exclusively by an insatiable U.S. consumer appetite for imported goods, port officials said Wednesday.

Metal cargo containers--ideal storage space to some Bellflower residents and businesses but eyesores to others--apparently are about to hit the road out of town. A divided Bellflower City Council voted recently to order businesses and residents to get rid of the containers. Containers have never been permitted in the city, but the ban has been ignored. "They're ugly," Councilman Ray T. Smith said in explaining why he wanted shipping containers banished from the city.

Among U.S. seaports, only two ? Los Angeles and Long Beach ? have ever moved more than 7 million cargo containers in a year. Now, an East Coast project is aiming to become the third to accomplish that feat. The $500-million Jasper Ocean Terminal, on the Savannah River near the Port of Savannah, is being jointly developed by the states of Georgia and South Carolina. The port will be built to handle 7 million cargo containers annually. That's a mark that Los Angeles hasn't hit since 2008 and that Long Beach hasn't reached since 2007.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, long the nation's dominant shipping harbors, lost a bit of market share to East Coast docks this year. The nation's two top ports expect to end this year on a slightly sour note, moving 200,000 fewer cargo containers than last year at a time when total trade at the nation's 10 biggest harbors has grown by about the same amount. A key reason for the slower activity has been that India and Singapore are becoming major shipping hubs, and routes there favor the East Coast, especially the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and the fast-growing Savannah, Ga., port.

Clerks who make $165,000 a year? That's outrageous! So, how much do you make? It's not a question one asks in polite conversation. But for the striking clerical workers at the Los Angeles ports, who agreed to a tentative deal to end their strike late Tuesday, their total compensation became front-page news: an average of $165,000. Except. Did you read that sentence carefully? Did you notice the words “total compensation”? That's right. Sometimes it pays to read the fine print.

Standing with a picket sign in hand, clerical worker Manny Garcia gestured his thanks to motorists honking in support as they drove past a Port of Los Angeles cargo terminal. Garcia has manned the picket lines at the L.A. and Long Beach ports in shifts since last week, when the 800-member International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 Office Clerical Unit went on strike. The issue pitting the clerical workers union against their shipping line employers is concern over outsourcing jobs, a charge the Harbor Employers Assn.

About 800 clerical workers based at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports find themselves in a position to wreak havoc on the economy of Southern California. Members of a local unit of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, they have gone on strike against the shipping companies that employ them, shutting down most of the cargo terminals at the two ports. The dispute epitomizes the issues confronted by organized labor in a globally connected world: The union is fighting to hold onto jobs that are increasingly threatened by automation and the Internet.

Cargo numbers for the nation's busiest seaport complex were down by 1% in July, compared to a year earlier. The numbers reflect continued weakness in the U.S. economic recovery during a month in which retailers were moving back-to-school products and had begun to stock their inventories for the November and December holiday retail season. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which share San Pedro Bay, are No. 1 and No. 2 in the nation, respectively, in the amount of imports and exports transported in steel cargo containers.

The nation's busiest seaport complex closed in on the peak cargo shipping season with a moderately strong showing last month. June is typically a busy month for cargo traffic at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which rank first and second, respectively, in the U.S. in the movement of cargo containers. Port officials said that they are hedging their bets about what the numbers signaled given recent negative economic news. "We're hesitant to read too much into this given the state of the economy," said Art Wong, a spokesman for the Port of Long Beach.

Cargo volumes through the nation's busiest seaport complex were flat in May compared with the same month a year earlier, but international trade experts said that trade numbers should improve in June. Import cargo through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which rank first and second in the U.S., respectively, dropped 2.4% in May to 620,659 containers compared with May 2011. Exports were down 0.08% to 314,190 containers. Empty containers headed back to Asian manufacturing centers were up, but not enough to shove the numbers into positive territory.

International trade at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach improved by more than 6% in April, compared with the same month a year ago, but the pace of growth slowed. April was the 15th straight month of growth at the nation's largest seaport complex. Trade-related jobs improved as well, but at a much slower pace. The twin ports handle more than 40% of the nation's imports from Asia, making them an important barometer for the U.S. economy and an important driver of jobs in wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach — which together constitute the nation's busiest seaport complex — reported very different traffic numbers for April. Together, they saw only a 1.8% increase for the month compared with a year earlier. Analysts blamed the near-flat results on the slowing Chinese economy and continuing doubts about the strength of the U.S. recovery. But the Port of Los Angeles had its best April ever and its best month of the year. Imports grew 16.7% from a year earlier to 364,556 containers.

A surge in cargo traffic at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has officials hoping that the U.S. economic recovery is gaining strength despite worrisome signs overseas. Combined, the neighboring ports handled more than 1.1 million cargo containers last month, an increase of 9.8% compared with March 2011. Much of the strength came from strong growth in imports, which were up a combined 12.8% for both ports compared with the same month last year. "Hopefully, it means that importers are starting to replenish their inventories" because they think that U.S. consumers will be in a buying mood, said Art Wong, spokesman for the Port of Long Beach.