Kristin Decas, CEO for the Southern California Port of Hueneme said “Last year we had a benchmark year and we are hoping to have another one this year.” The Port reported $8 billion in cargo value in the year ending in June 2013 and reported 267,737 car shipments, 49,000 high and heavy units and 20,000 containers. Although volumes were up in 2013 over 2012, Decas expressed a note of caution. Decas said that there was a sizeable increase in imports of heavy equipment: ”We saw a 6.8% increase in the imports of tractors and other heavy equipment -our high and heavy cargo because there had been pent up demand. The question is whether these shipments will continue to increase or whether they will plateau. The jury is still out on this.” Decas said a ‘similar situation exists with our auto shipments, there was an increase over the last few years but we are not yet back at 2006 levels so the jury is out on whether we will see further increases or the car shipments will plateau. There was a 12.2% increase in imports last year.” Bananas remain a major cargo for the Port “and demand is inelastic which means people are eating bananas in good times and in bad.” Port figures show that imports increased 5.7% last year. “People ask why is there this growth? We can only answer people are eating more bananas.” The Port is looking at some strategic investments, “We have made a strategic decision to upgrade our port facilities to handle more project cargoes such as wind turbine blades and more high and heavy cargo. In order to do this, we need to deepen the ship channel from the current 35 feet to 40 feet, something we are working with the Army Corps of Engineers on and we are applying for a federal TIGER grant to make improvements to our wharves so as to accommodate more rail capacity.” The Port is also looking at improving its cold storage capacity, “We also have cold storage facilities that are available and we are traveling down to South America to see if we can pick up more business. The cold storage would accommodate perishables such as bananas and avocados.”