Port Of Long Beach

As warehouses go, there are few like Skechers USA Inc.'s new 1.82-million-square-foot distribution center. This warehouse is so big that it takes half a minute to drive from one end to the other at 60 miles per hour. The setup is so advanced that human hands will hardly touch the cargo as it is unpacked, categorized, stacked and prepared for delivery. The building is so green that it uses prevailing winds for ventilation instead of air conditioning. For its new North American operations warehouse, the nation's No. 2 footwear company chose the Inland Empire's Moreno Valley.

Operations at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach may slow if automatic spending cuts go into effect Friday, port officials said, as fewer U.S. customs officers would delay the flow of international cargo through the massive sea ports. Officials of the two ports, which handle 40% of cargo that enters the U.S., warn that so-called sequestration would deal a blow to the Southern California economy as goods headed to market are delayed. QUIZ: Test your knowledge about the debt limit How significant the possible disruption would be remains to be seen as it's unclear how automatic budget cuts would be implemented by the U.S. Coast Guard, which provides security and inspects cargo vessels at the ports, and U.S.  Customs  and Border Protection, which helps seize counterfeit merchandise among other responsibilities.  Still, port officials said they worry that cargo delays would add a few days of total travel time if federal agencies are forced to furlough workers.

As the sun rises over the Port of Long Beach, two hard-hat divers step off the edge of a harbor patrol dive boat and splash into the murky waters a half-mile offshore. Their mission: to investigate the sonar blips that suggest there is a large submerged object menacing a busy shipping lane. They disappear in a profusion of bubbles, descending 46 feet in 30 seconds to the ocean floor. A remote-controlled rover with a video camera plunges with them, so the crew can monitor their every move.

A strike that would have shut down many of the nation's major seaports on the East and Gulf coasts has been averted by a contract extension. The International Longshoremen's Assn. and the United States Maritime Alliance have reached an agreement on so-called container royalty fees, one of the most contentious issues in the labor negotiation, said George H. Cohen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, which has been mediating the dispute. The agreement on the fees, which supplement dockworker wages, postpones any strike action until at least late January.

Long Beach, the nation's second-busiest cargo container seaport, saw a small decline in business of 3.2% in 2011 compared with the previous year, port officials said today. The Port of Long Beach handled 6.1 million cargo containers in 2011. Imports through the port of Long Beach were down 3.3% compared with 2010. Exports were down 3.6%. The number of empty containers handled by the port fell 2.7% compared with a year earlier. Long Beach port officials attributed the decline to a weak economic recovery in the U.S. The port was also operating just six cargo terminals in 2011, down from its usual seven terminals.

Every commercial harbor in the nation has its own pilots, and at the Port of Long Beach one family has been running the pilot operation for 90 years. It's the Jacobsen clan, whose roots stretch back to a Norwegian fishing village. Today they are responsible for shepherding ships as long as skyscrapers are tall. "My grandfather Jacob started doing this in 1922, when this port was pretty much just a mud flat," said Tom Jacobsen, the third-generation president of Jacobsen Pilot Service.

The Port of Long Beach moved forward Thursday with its plan to replace the deteriorating Gerald Desmond Bridge, releasing a draft of its revised environmental impact report on the proposed project. Port officials say the current bridge -- which was built in 1968 and crosses a key shipping channel in Long Beach -- is too low to the water, rendering that part of the Cerritos Channel impassable to the world's biggest cargo ships, which can hold more than 14,000 containers. The bridge's other main problem, port officials say, is that it wasn't built to carry the traffic it does now, adding stress to the structure.

Protesters from Occupy L.A. and other groups plan to form a picket line at the Port of Long Beach on Monday to try to shut down traffic at at least one shipping terminal. Similar actions are planned at ports up and down the West Coast. The target of the Long Beach protest is SSA Marine, a shipping company. Occupy L.A. demonstrator Michael Novick said protesters chose SSA Marine because "they embody all the ills of this economic regime we live under. " Protesters say SSA Marine has engaged in unfair labor practices and pursued objectionable environmental policies.

The Port of Long Beach has lately endured severe congestion, a dockworker shortage and torrential rain that damaged connecting rail lines. It was rewarded Friday with an improved outlook by Moody's Investors Service. Moody's bumped up the port's long-term debt outlook to positive from stable, representing the rating service's assessment of the harbor's financial health. Moody's also assigned a rating of Aa3 to the port's new California Harbor Revenue Refunding Bonds, Series 2005A and 2005B.

The huge car carrier ship called the M/V Auriga Leader idled at the Port of Long Beach, burning through enough electricity to power 100 homes as workers loaded and unloaded a fleet of Toyotas. But unlike any of the diesel-spewing, power-draining vessels that travel here, the Auriga Leader sports 328 solar panels on its top deck -- a small array that provides 10% of the energy used by the giant ship while she is docked.

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 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. Until negotiations broke down last week, the union and the U.S. Maritime Alliance Ltd. - a group of ocean cargo shipping lines, cargo terminal operators and port associations at 14 U.S. harbors - had been trying to iron out terms of a new six-year contract.

Re "New UC logo a no-go for many," Dec. 11 I don't understand the kerfuffle over the new University of California logo. In my view, the insignia is a forthright representation of the true state of the system. For years the UC system has been sliding into mediocrity. The Board of Regents and administrators long ago lost sight of the values and principles on which the university was founded and have turned the system into a poorly managed business rather than preserving it as a highly acclaimed academic resource dedicated to the public good.

The strike at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach entered its second week Monday. The strike has pitted the 800-member International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 Office Clerical Unit against some of the world's biggest shipping lines and terminal operators. It has shut down 10 of the 14 cargo container terminals at the nation's busiest seaport complex. Join us for a live video chat at 3 p.m. on the economic impact of the strike and prospects for resolution. Assistant business editor Nancy Rivera Brooks will be talking with Art Wong, a spokesman for the Port of Long Beach.

Every commercial harbor in the nation has its own pilots, and at the Port of Long Beach one family has been running the pilot operation for 90 years. It's the Jacobsen clan, whose roots stretch back to a Norwegian fishing village. Today they are responsible for shepherding ships as long as skyscrapers are tall. "My grandfather Jacob started doing this in 1922, when this port was pretty much just a mud flat," said Tom Jacobsen, the third-generation president of Jacobsen Pilot Service.

The Port of Long Beach has reached a tentative agreement with one of the world's biggest cargo shipping companies on a 40-year, $4.6-billion lease. The deal involves the port's largest-ever terminal upgrade and expansion, known as the Middle Harbor project. Port officials are finalizing the deal with Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas Container Line, more commonly known in industry circles as OOCL. With a fleet of 84 owned and chartered ships, OOCL ranks as the world's 12th largest ocean shipping line.

Long Beach, the nation's second-busiest cargo container seaport, saw a small decline in business of 3.2% in 2011 compared with the previous year, port officials said today. The Port of Long Beach handled 6.1 million cargo containers in 2011. Imports through the port of Long Beach were down 3.3% compared with 2010. Exports were down 3.6%. The number of empty containers handled by the port fell 2.7% compared with a year earlier. Long Beach port officials attributed the decline to a weak economic recovery in the U.S. The port was also operating just six cargo terminals in 2011, down from its usual seven terminals.

Port pollution: Photographs with an article in Wednesday's California section about a $19-million plan to cut pollution at local ports were identified as showing the Port of Long Beach. They showed the Port of Los Angeles.

Port protests: In the Page 1 index in the Dec. 13 Section A, a caption with a photo of an Occupy movement protester being detained at the Port of Long Beach said that several protests had slowed business at West Coast shipyards. It should have described the affected locations as shipping facilities or terminals, not shipyards, where ships are built or repaired.