b'16American Journal of Transportation ajot.comNorth American PacificPACIFIC COAST PORTS 2021Coast Ports 2021Californias big three post big numbers in first quarter of 2021By Stas Margaronis & George Lauriat,AJOTp ort oFl oSa ngeleS : w hat mentswhenashipisdue ad iFFerenCe ay earM akeS toarriveinOaklandandis What a difference a yeardelayed by congestion at the makes.IfanybodyknowsportsofLosAngelesand that,itisthePortofLosLong Beach.AngelesExecutiveDirectorSeroka said he does not GeneSeroka.InhisFebru- believe the diversions will be arymediabriefingSerokapermanent.remarked,OneyearagoSerokaalsonotedthat global trade slowed to a crawlone third of cargoes entering astheCOVID-19pandemicthe Port are destined for ware-first hit China and then spreadhouses in the Inland Empire, worldwideToday, we are inlocated in Riverside and San the seventh month of an unpar- BernardinoCounties,east alleledimportsurge,drivenofLos AngelesCounty.He by unprecedented demands byexpressed the hope that more American consumers. (PACIFICcontinued on And, the numbers tell thepage 17) The Port of Oakland recently finished erecting three new gantry cranes at Oakland International Container Terminal.story. In February the Port of Los Angeleshandledastag-gering 799,315 TEUs, a 47% increase over COVID stricken February 2020the best Feb-ruary in the Ports history and seventh consecutive month of year-over-year increases.Of course, the tsunami like surge of imports has come at a price. Container ships have been riding anchor awaiting berths like the LA freeway at rush hour. At this writing, 28 contain-erships are at anchor awaiting berths in LA and the neighbor-ingSanPedroportofLong Beach. The good news is this isasignificantdecreaseover the 40 ships that were piled up in early February but still bad newsforconsumersawaiting their goods.The tale in the TEU tally illustratesjusthowstrong theinboundsideisrunning. Loadedimportsat412,884 are up nearly 53% over 2020. The other side of the container import surge is the difficulty ingettingcontainersreposi-tioned back to sourcing siteslargely in Asiafor reload. The number of empties leav-ing LA is amazing. In Febru-aryalonethePorthandled 285,223 TEUs, an over 104% (editors italics) increase com-pared to 2020. Exports, on the other hand, are down. Loaded exportsareoffnearly25%, compared to 2020.Atthemomentclearing out the congestion is a prior-ity.SerokainhisFebruary briefingsaidthebacklogof cargo is so intense that it will take months to clear out. One resultofthiseffort,Seroka said,isthatCMA-CGMhas begun a new service from Asia with Oakland as the first port of call instead of Los Angeles or Long Beach. The diversions are designed to help relieve the congestion burden on the two Southern Californiaportsandreduce thedelaysofimportship-'