Shipping Line Signs Cargo Facility Lease

The Port of Long Beach has wooed one of the Pacific’s fastest-growing shipping lines to sign a letter of intent for a long-term lease on a proposed cargo complex at the Long Beach Naval Station that closed in 1994.

Chinese government-owned China Ocean Shipping Co., operating in Long Beach since 1981 and sharing container space with other lines, has grown dramatically in recent years to become one of the top five container lines crossing the Pacific.

“They are growing so fast, moving a lot of cargo, they need their own terminal,” said port spokeswoman Yvonne Avila.

Shipping lines use open-air warehouses for temporary storage of steel containers before or after loading or unloading. The proposed 130-acre terminal is scheduled for completion by early 1998. It will be among the port’s largest and cost about $200 million to build, Avila said.

Although the exact terms of the lease are not final, the firm will pay the port at least $100,000 an acre per year, or $13 million annually. The company will also have an option to expand the facility to 270 acres, if the port acquires the adjacent shipyard, scheduled to be closed by the Navy in 1997. The initial 130-acre terminal will be built on Navy land already approved by the city of Long Beach as a port container terminal.