Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka is projecting the Port will handle over 10 million annual TEUs by the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2021 making it “the first port in North America to do so.”
Seroka reported on the Port’s March 2021 performance during a Zoom press conference. He compared March 2021 cargo performance with March 2020, but cautioned that the big 2021 increases are distorted by the low volumes posted in March 2020 caused by pandemic related shutdowns in Asia:
Seroka reported that there was an average of 20 ships currently at anchor waiting to unload, which is half the number of ships at anchor for February. The average wait time for a vessel at anchor before unloading at the Port is 7.9 days.
Dwell time at Port terminals has gone down to 3.8 days versus 5 days in February.
Seroka expects “no impact” to the Port because of the temporary shutdown of the Suez Canal.
Seroka is hopeful that infrastructure investments from the American Jobs Plan, proposed by President Biden, will facilitate improvements at the Port in three areas.
In addition, there is $9 billion dollars in the Harbor Maintenance Fund. These funds should be made available to the ports that have contributed the most to the fund such as the Port of Los Angeles. In addition, there are funds available from the Water Resources Development Act that should be made available to the Port.
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