LA and Long Beach Ports Move to Break Shipping Bottleneck

With dozens of cargo ships at anchor waiting to be unloaded, the ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach are expanding the hours during which trucks can pick up and return containers

According to a Port of Los Angeles press release, both ports will expand the hours during which trucks can pick up and return containers. Mario Cordero, executive director of the Port of Long Beach, said in the release Long Beach will take the first step towards a 24/7 supply chain by maximizing nighttime operations, while Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka announced that the Port of Los Angeles will expand weekend operating gate hours.

 The Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach are the two largest ports in the nation, and combined are the ninth-largest port complex in the world. According to another release from the Port of Los Angeles, it processed 954,377 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs), just shy of last August’s record of 961,833 TEUs. Eight months into the 2021 calendar year, overall cargo volume is 7,273,053 TEUs, an increase of +30% compared to 2020. Seroka expects "significant volume" to continue into 2022.