The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners on Monday, January 14, in a joint meeting with the Los Angeles Board, approved a cargo fee that will generate $1.4 billion for transportation projects to improve traffic flow and air quality in the harbor area.
The infrastructure cargo fee, about $15 per loaded twenty-foot equivalent container unit (TEU), will provide funding for improvements including replacement of the Gerald Desmond and Heim bridges, freeway connector improvements, and port-area rail enhancements, which reduce the need for local truck trips. The ports expect to begin collecting the fee on January 1, 2009. The funds will be used to match Proposition 1B funds, for a total of about $3 billion for port-area improvements.
Read more: Click here for a news release on he infrastructure cargo fee. Also available are a Fact Sheet, board memo, and the tariff amendment.
Watch it: The Harbor Commission meeting is available for viewing anytime on the web. Click here for the meeting archives.
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A boom in exports helped overall Port container trade stay about the same from 2006 to 2007, with about 7.3 million twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEUs).
Port terminals moved a total of 7.31 million TEUs in 2007, compared to 7.29 in 2006, for a slight increase of 0.3 percent. In 2007, imported containers decreased by 0.4 percent, to about 3.7 million TEUs, while export containers increased by 22 percent to about 1.5 million TEUs. The movement of empty containers, most of which are sent overseas to be refilled with products, decreased by 10.8 percent, to about 2 million TEUs.
Between June and November 2007 the Port saw six consecutive months of export increases of more than 30 percent, fueling the overall yearly jump of 22 percent. Because more containers heading overseas were filled with exports, the number of empty containers moving across Port terminals declined.
Read more: Click here for the Port’s 2007 year-to-date TEU trade, here for the December 2007 TEU figures, and here for the latest tonnage summary reports.
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The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners approved a cargo fee December 17 to help put a new generation of cleaner trucks into service. The fee will place a $35 charge on every loaded twenty-foot equivalent (TEU) cargo container entering or leaving the ports by short-haul (or "drayage") truck beginning June 1, 2008. The fee would not apply to containers entering or leaving the ports by train and would end when the fleet of drayage trucks meets Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) requirements in about 2012. The fee approval followed the Board’s November action to ban old, dirty trucks from Port service beginning October 1, 2008. The Los Angeles Harbor Commission separately approved the fee, so it will apply across the San Pedro Bay.
Read more: Click here for a news release on the clean trucks fee. Also available are the Fact Sheet, Q&A, staff report, and the tariff amendment.
Watch it: Click here to watch a webcast of the December 17 board meeting.
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The Port is reaching out to Long Beach residents with a series of community forums, "Let’s Talk Port," beginning this month. Residents are invited to ask questions and share ideas in a casual setting, with Port staff on hand to provide information and listen to comments from residents. The Port will host "Let's Talk Port" workshops throughout the year, each at a different location in Long Beach.
Read more: For more information and the latest schedule of "Let's Talk Port" workshops, click here.
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Cosmo Perrone’s mission to revamp and modernize security at the Port of Long Beach has not gone unnoticed by the security industry. The Port’s Director of Security has been recognized as one of the "Top 25 Most Influential People in the Security Industry" by Security Magazine, a leading trade journal.
Read More: Click here for a news release on Perrone’s recognition.
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Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), has donated its $100,000 Green Flag rebate to the Long Beach Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine for the development of the first universally accessible playground in the city. OOCL’s donation comes from rebates given on dockage fees for compliance with the Port’s "Green Flag" air quality program. OOCL maintained 100 percent compliance with the program in 2006.
The playground, to be built at El Dorado Park, will be Long Beach’s first "universally accessible playground," for use by children with disabilities as well as able-bodied children. The donation was presented to the Long Beach City Council January 15 by Anthony Otto, vice president of OOCL’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Long Beach Container Terminal Inc.
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• Infrastructure Cargo Fee
  
• 2007 Container Trade
  
  
• Clean Trucks
  
  
• Let’s Talk Port
  
  
• Security Recognition
  
  
• OOCL Donation