Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: The other major story obviously out there is the day
Speaker 2: one of the port strike here on the East Coast.
Speaker 2: I mean I was looking at some graphics on various
Speaker 2: TV networks and it's pretty much all down the entire
Speaker 2: East Coast, winding around our friends in Florida and all
Speaker 2: the way into the Gulf Coast. You start thinking about,
Speaker 2: you know, that's a lot of territory there that does
Speaker 2: a lot of shipping, so you really want to get
Speaker 2: some perspective on that. You can go to the folks
Speaker 2: on the left side of this country, on the West Coast,
Speaker 2: they had their labor issues a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2: Maria Kodero joins a CEO for the Port of Long Beach. Mario,
Speaker 2: thanks so much for joining us here. What role do
Speaker 2: you believe the West Coast ports, your port in Long
Speaker 2: Beach can have and maybe relieving some of the pressure
Speaker 2: on shippers who can't unload or load their goods on
Speaker 2: the East Coast. How are you guys approaching that?
Speaker 3: Well, thank you for the invitation. I mean, I think
Speaker 3: when you talk about Long Beach, we're part of the
Speaker 3: largest container gateway for the nation. So I think the
Speaker 3: road that we play is a continued row that we
Speaker 3: move a great percentage of the nation's trade, and I
Speaker 3: think we're in a very good position to handle whatever
Speaker 3: search comes our way. And last, I'll make the point
Speaker 3: that August we had a historic number of containers moving
Speaker 3: through the Port Long Beach. That number was nine hundred
Speaker 3: and thirteen thousand plus containers. That's a historical high number
Speaker 3: for US, a record number. And when you add the
Speaker 3: Port of LA for August, we approximate about one point
Speaker 3: nine million containers in this gateway the Sanpeter Bay complex.
Speaker 3: So our role here is to continue to move cargo
Speaker 3: in an efficient manner. And again, Port Long Beach has
Speaker 3: a tremendous capacity right now, in that words, good capacity
Speaker 3: around seventy percent, so we are prepared to continue to
Speaker 3: move that containerized cargo that comes our way.
Speaker 1: I'm curious what kind of lessons did you end up
Speaker 1: learning from the pandemic because we had so many supply
Speaker 1: related issues with the chains there, and how could that
Speaker 1: help you try to navigate this instance?
Speaker 3: Great question, a lot of lessons learned. Number one, expanding
Speaker 3: operation hours. I've been a big spokesperson for twenty four
Speaker 3: to seven operations. Again to qualify that or put that
Speaker 3: in perspective. You know, we're not going to go twenty
Speaker 3: four hours a day, seven days a week anytime soon,
Speaker 3: but there's a framework of expansion of hours. So in
Speaker 3: Long Beach we've done that, We've done staging areas, and
Speaker 3: again this is going to be very beneficial for us
Speaker 3: if in fact we need to stage containers outside the terminals.
Speaker 3: And I think the lessons learned from COVID. Again, it's
Speaker 3: a supply chain issue. So the warehouse that is the
Speaker 3: end product here of the supply chain in this region,
Speaker 3: they also are very collaborative with us and making sure
Speaker 3: that inventory moves. So again, a lot of lessons learned
Speaker 3: from COVID nineteen supply chain crisis. So we're applying those
Speaker 3: lessons and hopefully again as we're as I just noted,
Speaker 3: we're moving a record amount of cargo here at to
Speaker 3: poor Long Beach without any congestion or bottlenecks whatsoever.
Speaker 2: Hey, Marie, if I'm a shipper, got a ship at
Speaker 2: sea in the Atlantic steaming towards New York or something,
Speaker 2: and that's closed, Now, what are the economics for me
Speaker 2: to say, Oh, I'll go to the Panama Canal, go
Speaker 2: through there, then I'll come up to your port in
Speaker 2: Long Beach. Is that realistic? Is that a decision option?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean that decision for the shippers based on economics.
Speaker 3: So obviously, if they're going to come to the West Coast,
Speaker 3: I think that decision comes into play that for them,
Speaker 3: it's a reduced cost with regard to the option that
Speaker 3: potentially could happen. But in that regard, yes, there's increased
Speaker 3: transportation costs for sure, But I think again, I think
Speaker 3: it's going to be a scenario which we'll be able
Speaker 3: to manage that and move forward as we have in
Speaker 3: previous instances. We talked about COVID nineteen. But again we
Speaker 3: have a lot of lessons learned from COVID nineteen, and
Speaker 3: one of them is we are prepared no matter where
Speaker 3: the options are in terms of cargo flow, we're going
Speaker 3: to be moving to cargo here.
Speaker 1: What other ports along the West coast do you first
Speaker 1: see field cargo that ends up getting re routed? I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: repeat that question, So what other ports along the West
Speaker 1: coast do you foresee other sort of field cargo end
Speaker 1: up getting re routed at this point?
Speaker 3: Well, number one poort of Los Angeles. Again, they're part
Speaker 3: of this gateway, the Port of Oakland in northern California,
Speaker 3: and you also have the Port of Wayanimi. So there's
Speaker 3: other ports in the West coast here and again if
Speaker 3: you go to the northwest port of Seattle and Tacoma.
Speaker 3: So I think the West Coast is in a very
Speaker 3: good position to make sure that we not only receive
Speaker 3: the cargo, but continue to move it inland to the
Speaker 3: nation's midwest. Maria.
Speaker 2: One of the topics that I guess the long shoremen
Speaker 2: and the shippers have is a wages of course, and
Speaker 2: presumably that will work itself out. But the other one
Speaker 2: is automation and what that means for jobs. How do
Speaker 2: you guys talk to your long shorman about the need
Speaker 2: for you guys to automate to remain competitive versus their
Speaker 2: need to preserve jobs. What's that discussion like these days?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean you mentioned an issue here. Automation robotics
Speaker 3: has been a continued concern in all sectors of labor.
Speaker 3: So for the poor lombies, I think the way we've
Speaker 3: been able to navigate well with our labor partners is
Speaker 3: anyone who's interested in better developing the terminals of the
Speaker 3: Poor Long Beach. Number One, you have to have a
Speaker 3: meeting of the minds with the IOWU, so that collaborative
Speaker 3: partnership and works well for us. So in that regard,
Speaker 3: that's been our policy. Anybody who wants to expand or
Speaker 3: develop their terminals, they have to go through the iow first,
Speaker 3: and that mitigates any serious differences as we go down
Speaker 3: the road. So for us, it's been a successful path.
Speaker 3: But on the other hand, again keep in mind, this
Speaker 3: is an issue across the board in terms of workforce
Speaker 3: in the nation, if not the global community.
Speaker 1: Do you have a sense from retailers how they're potentially
Speaker 1: making contingency plans as of now.
Speaker 3: Well, I think what I can tell you is I
Speaker 3: gave you these record numbers that we're moving here at
Speaker 3: the Poor of Long Beach for August. That's almost a
Speaker 3: thirty four percent increase year to year. So I think
Speaker 3: the retailers and the shippers have already anticipated a scenario
Speaker 3: that's occurring in the East Coast and they've already made
Speaker 3: that decision to move their cargo to the West Coast.
Speaker 3: And again, the August numbers for both these ports Los
Speaker 3: Angeles and Long Beach here in the San Pedo Bay
Speaker 3: complex are historical numbers, so that basically answers the question
Speaker 3: that I think they've already made those decisions, and I
Speaker 3: do expect to have additional cargo. But have me said
Speaker 3: all this, I want to make sure that again from
Speaker 3: the poorer lobbies, we encourage that the parties in the
Speaker 3: East Coast moved to the resolution because any bottleneck and
Speaker 3: the supply chain in the nation is not good. So
Speaker 3: for my perspective, I think again it's not about additional
Speaker 3: cargo that we're going to get. It's about hopefully these
Speaker 3: parties come to a mutual resolution soon so that we
Speaker 3: don't impact the nation's supply chain anywhere in the country.
Speaker 2: Hey, Maria, thank you so much for joining us. Really
Speaker 2: appreciate getting some of your time. Maria Cordero, he's the
Speaker 2: CEO of the Port of Long Beach, giving us a
Speaker 2: sense of kind of they're busy