Shipping

The nation's busiest seaport could lose at least 3% of its cargo container business if it adopts a controversial proposal requiring shipping companies to employ the thousands of short-haul truck drivers who work on a contractual basis, a new study says. The analysis, conducted by Boston Consulting Group, said that "substantial diversions" of the Los Angeles port's business probably would shift to the neighboring port of Long Beach or to other harbors. The port moved 8.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Tuesday unveiled a $19-million plan to persuade shippers to burn cleaner fuel when vessels are near the California coast, a move expected to slash local air pollution by 11%. Cargo ships, some of which can emit more diesel exhaust per day than 12,000 automobiles, are responsible for much of the air pollution in the region.

The Los Angeles Harbor Commission on Thursday unanimously approved a clean air plan requiring shipping companies to buy and maintain a modernized fleet of big rigs and employ thousands of independent truckers who currently operate under contract. A spokesman for the American Trucking Assn. derided the plan as a "scheme to unionize port drivers" and vowed that his group would sue the port.

Mexico's government is preparing to open bidding on the largest infrastructure project in the nation's history, a $4-billion seaport that could transform this farming village into a cargo hub to rival the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. If completed as planned by 2014, the port would be the linchpin of a new shipping route linking the Pacific Ocean to America's heartland.

The nation's top hauler of container rail freight, BNSF Railway Co., is parking miles of rail cars in Montana and elsewhere because there isn't enough freight to keep them rolling. Cars that often carry 40-foot containers of goods shipped from Asia stand like an iron fence between the Missouri River and this Montana burg known for world-class fly fishing. They stretch as far as Sandee Cardinal can see when she stands outside her home on the river's west bank between Helena and Great Falls.

If you think gas is expensive, be thankful you're not a trucker. Filling up their 18-wheel, 80,000-pound leviathans can cost more than $1,300 these days. Because of short supply, the price of diesel has gone up more than twice as much as gasoline in the last year, reaching a U.S. all-time high this week of an average of $4.33 a gallon. With little hope of a near-term decline -- oil futures rose $2.17 to settle at a record $126.

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.

An effort to ease daytime traffic at Southern California's major ports is working better than anyone imagined, shifting 40% of freight movements away from peak business hours, the program's manager will announce today. But some say the push to move cargo at night and on Saturdays doesn't go far enough to ease congestion and other ill effects on neighboring communities.

California regulators adopted the world's toughest pollution rules for oceangoing vessels Thursday, vowing to improve the health of coastal residents and opening a new front in a long battle with the international shipping industry. The rules, which take effect in 2009, would require ships within 24 nautical miles of California to burn low-sulfur diesel instead of the tar-like sludge known as bunker fuel.

The nation's largest trucking association filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday alleging that portions of a landmark program to upgrade a fleet of 17,000 old trucks servicing the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach place an "unreasonable burden on interstate commerce" and could harm the U.S. economy. Port authorities said they intended to proceed with the air quality initiative. "Truck pollution is a serious threat to public health, including the health of truck drivers," said Richard D.