California’s secondary ports, hardly second class. It is hard to ignore California’s big three: Long Beach, Los Angeles and Oakland. It sounds almost like talking about an NBA basketball team. A trio of players that makes one team more dominant than another. California has it, and it’s not about the Clippers. The two San Pedro ports represent the largest cargo gateway into the U.S. and in most states, Oakland would be the largest container port. But California’s secondary niche ports are far more than an addendum to the totals of the big three. The State has two ports with over 4-million tons of cargo, four more registering over 1-million tons of freight and three more tallying over 300,000 tons of cargo…and none of these ports are LA, LB or Oakland. This total of nine-ports registering over 300,000 tons of business would be impressive for a country, let alone a single state. Bay Area Ports Many of the California niche ports are located in the San Francisco Bay area. Among the Bay area ports are Redwood City, Richmond, Benicia, Stockton, West Sacramento and Crockett. While these ports are not big names, they represent a significant amount of freight. The ports of Benicia, Redwood City and Richmond all contribute in excess of 1.4 million tons of cargo each to the Californian port system. Add in the Port of Stockton (the region’s mega-niche port), which handled over 3 millions tons of cargo, and the importance of these ports to the Golden State’s economic well being is clear. Each port has its own niche contribution. For example, Benicia’s 1.4 million tons of freight is nearly all autos. It’s a good example of how a small port works in a regional economy. The Port is privately owned and handles General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, and Toyota. Benicia is the Northern California hub for the domestic distribution of Fords and Chryslers, and all Toyotas delivered to Northern California are processed from this Port. Out of the Port of Eureka’s 121,000 tons of freight nearly 100,000 tons was bulk cargo, but 27,000 tons of lumber was also handled. The Port of Redwood City posted nearly 1.4 million tons, which was nearly all bulk, and recently started up with cement. Like Benicia, the Port of Richmond is largely an auto port handling over 1 millions tons of vehicles along with bulk commodities. The Port of San Francisco is also a bulk port (see Stas Margaronis interview with Peter Dailey on page 4) for the Bay area. The Port of Stockton, the largest of Northern California’s niche ports, is largely a bulk port handling cargos related to the areas agricultural base (see Karen Thuermer article, page 8). However, the port also handled over 330,000 in general cargo and nearly 2,000 tons of autos in 2014. According to Stockton’s port director Rick Aschieris, the port handled commodities worth an estimated $1.5 billion in 2014. He said, “Ninety percent of the fertilizer used in San Joaquin County comes through the port, and the number of ship arrivals reached an all-time high of 230 in addition to the 52 barges docking at the port, the highest number since 1978 when the tracking of arrivals began.” Earlier this year, the Port of Stockton opened a prime example of niche port enterprise. Near the port, Union Pacific Railroad built an $18 million ribbon rail welding facility featuring 17,000 feet of track, a rail storage yard, a welding and inspection building, extra milling capacity and a gantry crane for off-loading 480-foot-long bundles of steel rail from Japan. The purpose of the facility is to connect the lengths of steel rail into quarter-mile long sections. In December a test shipment of 10,000 tons of the 480-foot rails arrived at the port aboard the Pacific Spike, a ship designed specifically to carry the long rails from Japan to Stockton. The ship is equipped with three built-in 50-ton cranes that carefully lift the rails in bundles of five from the hold directly onto specially built railcars on the dock beside the ship. For welding, the rails are pushed into tiers of racks, which hold them in place during the welding process. The Port of Stockton is the only port in the US receiving rails in this manner. Southern CA Niche Ports Southern California has two major niche ports, Hueneme and San Diego, both of which handle over 5 million tons a year. The two would easily be major ports in most states but with ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in the region their status is relegated to niche. Not that such a status is bad. Both ports relish their niche positions. Kristin Decas, the Port of Hueneme CEO says Hueneme [The Port of Hueneme is owned and operated by The Oxnard Harbor District] is a “specialty port.” The port serves as an import center for fresh fruit, with mostly bananas, automobiles and liquid fertilizer. The geography helps. The Port of Hueneme is the only deep-water port between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and because it isn’t as big as the other ports, there is less traffic congestion, which means better velocity moving freight in and out. Equally, the port’s proximity to the rich Central Valley region makes it a key export center for a variety of agricultural exports. Sunkist Growers and tropical fruit and banana importers Del Monte and Chiquita base their U.S. West Coast distribution operations in Hueneme. The Port of San Diego (San Diego Unified Port District), an autonomous public agency, has a diverse cargo mix which reflects the port’s importance across a wide variety of economic sectors. For example, in 2014 the port handled over 120,000 tons of cement, 41,000 tons of fertilizer, 51,000 tons of Soda Ash/Potash, another 557,000 tons of autos, and 660,000 tons of containers. The flexible nature of the Port has also contributed to securing project work, including wind turbines. In April this year, the Biglift Shipping vessel, Happy Dynamic, called at the Port of San Diego’s Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal with 2,800 tons of shipbuilding materials from Masan, South Korea including engine components, a propeller and steel. The cargo is to be used by General Dynamics NASSCO in the construction of a series of LNG-powered container vessels and eco-tankers that will be deployed in domestic cargo markets.