Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
The other major story obviously out there is the day one of the port strike here on the East Coast. I mean I was looking at some graphics on various TV networks and it's pretty much all down the entire East Coast, winding around our friends in Florida and all the way into the Gulf Coast. You start thinking about, you know, that's a lot of territory there that does a lot of shipping, so you really want to get
some perspective on that. You can go to the folks on the left side of this country, on the West Coast, they had their labor issues a couple of years ago. Maria Kodero joins a CEO for the Port of Long Beach. Mario, thanks so much for joining us here. What role do you believe the West Coast ports, your port in Long Beach can have and maybe relieving some of the pressure on shippers who can't unload or load their goods on the East Coast. How are you guys approaching that?
Well, thank you for the invitation. I mean, I think when you talk about Long Beach, we're part of the largest container gateway for the nation. So I think the road that we play is a continued row that we move a great percentage of the nation's trade, and I think we're in a very good position to handle whatever search comes our way. And last, I'll make the point that August we had a historic number of containers moving through the Port Long Beach. That number was nine hundred
and thirteen thousand plus containers. That's a historical high number for US, a record number. And when you add the Port of LA for August, we approximate about one point nine million containers in this gateway the Sanpeter Bay complex. So our role here is to continue to move cargo
in an efficient manner. And again, Port Long Beach has a tremendous capacity right now, in that words, good capacity around seventy percent, so we are prepared to continue to move that containerized cargo that comes our way.
I'm curious what kind of lessons did you end up learning from the pandemic because we had so many supply related issues with the chains there, and how could that help you try to navigate this instance?
Great question, a lot of lessons learned. Number one, expanding operation hours. I've been a big spokesperson for twenty four to seven operations. Again to qualify that or put that in perspective. You know, we're not going to go twenty four hours a day, seven days a week anytime soon,
but there's a framework of expansion of hours. So in Long Beach we've done that, We've done staging areas, and again this is going to be very beneficial for us if in fact we need to stage containers outside the terminals. And I think the lessons learned from COVID. Again, it's a supply chain issue. So the warehouse that is the end product here of the supply chain in this region, they also are very collaborative with us and making sure that inventory moves. So again, a lot of lessons learned
from COVID nineteen supply chain crisis. So we're applying those lessons and hopefully again as we're as I just noted, we're moving a record amount of cargo here at to poor Long Beach without any congestion or bottlenecks whatsoever.
Hey, Marie, if I'm a shipper, got a ship at sea in the Atlantic steaming towards New York or something, and that's closed, Now, what are the economics for me to say, Oh, I'll go to the Panama Canal, go through there, then I'll come up to your port in Long Beach. Is that realistic? Is that a decision option?
Well, I mean that decision for the shippers based on economics. So obviously, if they're going to come to the West Coast, I think that decision comes into play that for them, it's a reduced cost with regard to the option that potentially could happen. But in that regard, yes, there's increased transportation costs for sure, But I think again, I think it's going to be a scenario which we'll be able to manage that and move forward as we have in
previous instances. We talked about COVID nineteen. But again we have a lot of lessons learned from COVID nineteen, and one of them is we are prepared no matter where the options are in terms of cargo flow, we're going to be moving to cargo here.
What other ports along the West coast do you first see field cargo that ends up getting re routed? I'm sorry, repeat that question, So what other ports along the West coast do you foresee other sort of field cargo end up getting re routed at this point?
Well, number one poort of Los Angeles. Again, they're part of this gateway, the Port of Oakland in northern California, and you also have the Port of Wayanimi. So there's other ports in the West coast here and again if you go to the northwest port of Seattle and Tacoma. So I think the West Coast is in a very good position to make sure that we not only receive the cargo, but continue to move it inland to the nation's midwest. Maria.
One of the topics that I guess the long shoremen and the shippers have is a wages of course, and presumably that will work itself out. But the other one is automation and what that means for jobs. How do you guys talk to your long shorman about the need for you guys to automate to remain competitive versus their need to preserve jobs. What's that discussion like these days?
Well, I mean you mentioned an issue here. Automation robotics has been a continued concern in all sectors of labor. So for the poor lombies, I think the way we've been able to navigate well with our labor partners is anyone who's interested in better developing the terminals of the Poor Long Beach. Number One, you have to have a meeting of the minds with the IOWU, so that collaborative partnership and works well for us. So in that regard,
that's been our policy. Anybody who wants to expand or develop their terminals, they have to go through the iow first, and that mitigates any serious differences as we go down the road. So for us, it's been a successful path. But on the other hand, again keep in mind, this is an issue across the board in terms of workforce in the nation, if not the global community.
Do you have a sense from retailers how they're potentially making contingency plans as of now.
Well, I think what I can tell you is I gave you these record numbers that we're moving here at the Poor of Long Beach for August. That's almost a thirty four percent increase year to year. So I think the retailers and the shippers have already anticipated a scenario that's occurring in the East Coast and they've already made that decision to move their cargo to the West Coast.
And again, the August numbers for both these ports Los Angeles and Long Beach here in the San Pedo Bay complex are historical numbers, so that basically answers the question that I think they've already made those decisions, and I do expect to have additional cargo. But have me said all this, I want to make sure that again from the poorer lobbies, we encourage that the parties in the East Coast moved to the resolution because any bottleneck and
the supply chain in the nation is not good. So for my perspective, I think again it's not about additional cargo that we're going to get. It's about hopefully these parties come to a mutual resolution soon so that we don't impact the nation's supply chain anywhere in the country.
Hey, Maria, thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate getting some of your time. Maria Cordero, he's the CEO of the Port of Long Beach, giving us a sense of kind of they're busy