Inbound cargo ramps up at Port of Oakland

With the approach of Peak Season, California’s third largest container port reports increased import volumes. This is the sixth-strait month of inbound growth, jumping 15 percent in August compared to 2014 totals.

Maritime Director John Driscoll said this could be an indication that the season will be strong.

“We are building momentum,” he added.

Port spokesmen said overall container volume in August - imports, exports and empty boxes – was up 6 percent. Year-to-date total volume is still down 4.8 percent from a year ago. But that’s a significant recovery from double-digit volume declines in winter.

Imports have led Oakland’s volume rebound. The port said it lifted the equivalent of 82,492 20-foot containers (TEUs) last month. That was the most since March when the port’s import rally began. Import growth has been continuous since the Feb. 20 tentative settlement of a West Coast waterfront labor dispute.

The port said an increase in longshore labor on the waterfront is helping to absorb volume growth. About 150 more dockworkers are being deployed at Oakland’s five marine terminals. With added labor, the port said it has cleared a summer backlog of ships waiting to berth.

As reported in LM, California’s two largest ports – Los Angeles and Long Beach – also weighed in with good numbers and a bullish forecast.

At last week’s Third Annual Global Supply Chain Excellence Summit staged by the USC Marshall School of Business, executive directors from both ports declared that “We’re Back.”

Gene Seroka, the chief at Los Angeles, maintained that collaboration with Long Beach would ensure that “the worst is over.”

Jon Slangerup, CEO at Long Beach, said the port industry is becoming less fragmented an “silo-driven.”

Both executives said that labor negotiations on pending contracts with some dockside locals were “getting an early start,” to avoid the catastrophic repeat of union-organized slowdowns that contributed to historic congestion problems earlier this year.