The Port of Long Beach moved 997,177 TEUs in September, “the single busiest month in the Port’s 115-year history, edging out our previous record set in October 2024 by about 10,000 TEUs,” according to Port of Long Beach CEO Noel Hacegaba.
Speaking at the Port’s media briefing on October 15, Hacegaba said dockworkers and terminal operators “have moved more than 7.67 million TEUs so far this year, representing a 3.9% year-over-year increase from January through September. Now, last month’s record cargo was due in no small part to a jump in imports, up 30% over last year.”
Vincent Thomas Bridge Closure
Hacegaba assured his audience that the Port will not face disruptions from the November closure of the Vincent Thomas Bridge, which connects San Pedro and Terminal Island within the Port of Los Angeles:
“There’s a big project about to start right across the harbor at the Port of Los Angeles. On November 7, the Vincent Thomas Bridge will close to traffic for 16 months. I want to be clear: This closure will not affect operations here at the Port of Long Beach. Let me repeat: The Port will open and operate as normal while the Vincent Thomas is closed.”
To assure the fluidity of Long Beach operations during the Vincent Thomas Bridge closure, Hacegaba said:
“We have worked with our marine terminal operators to develop a program for extended gates to offer maximum flexibility to our customers. Port of Long Beach terminals will be offering additional shifts for a six-week period, starting two weeks before the bridge closure and continuing through the first four weeks following the closure.
“During those six weeks, we will monitor and review the use of these additional shifts and provide additional updates as needed. The idea is to make more gate hours available on evenings and weekends to give our partners more opportunities to access their containers.”
Diesel Prices Hurting Truckers
Another concern for the Port is high diesel prices:
“The price at the pump keeps going up, and that’s especially true for our truckers here in California. The average price of diesel is now more than $8 a gallon. That’s a $3 increase from 2025. Nationally, diesel prices have jumped about 70%, or $3.76, since the conflict with Iran began in February.
“There are new reports that truckers are paying between $700 and $800 per fill-up and that smaller trucking companies are having a hard time keeping enough cash on hand to do business. The President signed an executive order to reduce diesel costs that includes allowing truckers to buy tax-free diesel, which is normally only available for farm and construction equipment. According to The Wall Street Journal, Americans have spent an additional $100 billion on fuel since the conflict broke out with Iran.”
Trump Tariffs Hurt Farmers
Hacegaba’s guest was Peter Friedmann, Executive Director of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition (AgTC), who expressed concerns about foreign countries’ retaliation against tariffs imposed by the Trump administration:
“There’s nothing we produce in agriculture or forest products in our country that cannot be sourced somewhere else in the world. If we do not deliver affordably and dependably to our foreign customers, those foreign customers can and will find alternatives to the US.”
The result, Friedmann said:
“So, we have learned the lesson—or been reminded of the lesson—the hard way. When we impose tariffs on other countries that are immediately apparent on the import cargo coming in, those countries will retaliate and drive our customers overseas … to other sources because they will retaliate by making our products more expensive in the global marketplace.”
Harbor Trucking Association’s Congestion Concerns
Hacegaba responded to concerns voiced by Robert Loya, CEO of the Harbor Trucking Association, who wrote an advisory to HTA members stating that, as a result of congestion at ports in China, ocean carrier vessels have arrived at and departed from the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles without fully loading empty containers so that they could get in line in China.
The effect, Loya said, is contributing to a growing congestion problem, which in turn has resulted in delays in picking up and returning containers and the sometimes unfair imposition of detention and demurrage invoices on harbor truckers. Loya wrote that terminals “have been building super piles utilizing overflow areas, dirt lots, corners of their yards and space never intended to serve as working inventory.”
Hacegaba responded:
“The Port of Long Beach is handling more cargo than ever before, more than we did during the pandemic-era supply chain crisis when, if you remember, there were 109 ships at anchor trying to access the San Pedro Bay ports. Complex backlogs, congestion delays. We’re not seeing that. There are zero ships at anchor.
“And when you look at labor allocation, historic amounts of labor are being allocated to our terminal operations. Our ships are being turned around well within historical norms. And we’re dealing with even bigger ships like the 24,000-TEU MSC Nela.
“Now, of course, because we’re busy, we’re going to be moving at the pace of busy, but we’re not congested, we’re not delayed. And if there are any incidents of piling up of empties, it’s because our terminals are trying to optimize the footprint. They have to continue to accommodate the inbound cargo and move it out of our gates as quickly as possible so that these massive ships like the 24,000-TEU MSC Nela [which recently arrived at the Port] can be 100% discharged and 100% reloaded to get that back to Asia as quickly as possible.
“So, I appreciate the concern. I can tell you also … we are in daily touch with all of our marine terminal operators. We’re in daily touch with our friends, including Robert Loya, my friend at the Harbor Trucking Association. And we’re working together like never before to handle this record amount of volume as efficiently and reliably as possible.”
