Record Imports at Area Ports Boost Trade-Related Companies
Southern California’s trade-related businesses handled an unprecedented flood of overseas goods last year, as the nation’s busiest ports at Long Beach and Los Angeles took in record cargo volume.
The onslaught aided growth at local distribution facilities, transportation companies, freight-forwarding concerns and other trade-sector businesses in the region. Many companies had to scramble to find workers to keep up with an unrelenting flow of cargo.
“Yes, we had a good year. Gross sales were the highest we’ve ever had, but it was not easy,” said Patty Senecal, vice president of sales for Rancho Dominguez-based Transport Express trucking and distribution services. At one point, the company remained open nearly around the clock for six weeks to stay on top of its workload.
South Gate-based DSL Transportation Services Inc., which handles Asian imports for Wal-Mart and other major retailers, needed to hire more than 50 employees to keep pace with the cargo surge, Chief Executive Cobb Grantham said.
In 1999, the Port of Los Angeles handled 3.8 million containers, nearly 2 million of which were imports--another benchmark for the facility, officials said Thursday.
Year-end figures for neighboring Port of Long Beach, the No. 1 harbor, won’t be announced until next week, but officials there expect the facility to beat its previous cargo record of 4.1 million containers by at least 200,000.
Both ports have been awash with imports largely because the strong U.S. dollar has made the American consumer market a magnet for Asian goods. Cargo coming into the ports has mostly been finished goods such as home electronics, apparel, sporting goods and toys.
Exports, meanwhile, made a slight comeback over 1998 as Asian economies, particularly South Korea’s, continued to recover from the region’s massive financial meltdown in 1997. Year-end exports at Los Angeles were up 3%, or about 23,000 containers. Exports at Long Beach were up 1.2% through November.
But it was largely the record volume of imports that kept Southern California’s $50-billion trade-related economy humming.
The ranks of local full-time dockworkers swelled to 5,299--the highest level in a decade--and more than 4,000 temporary workers also found jobs, said Mike Freese, president of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union, Local 13., which represents all dockworkers at local ports. “There was such an influx of cargo that we were extra busy last year,” he said.
So was Noble Distribution Systems.The Rancho Dominguez-based warehousing and distribution facility saw its volume of import containers increase from roughly 30 a week in 1998 to nearly 50 last year, forcing the company to hire 15 new employees. It now has a work force of 55.
The company’s revenue also shot up by 25%, said President Kenneth Noble, adding that he turned away 10 potential clients because projected profit margins were too slight.
Freight forwarder Global Transportation Inc., based in Redondo Beach, also had its share of phone calls from exporters eager to get their goods across the Pacific.
As the volume of imports grew, cargo space on freighters bound for the U.S. became scarce, despite the fact that at least 10 new steamship lines inaugurated cargo service between Asia and Southern California last year. “We had people who called us and said, ‘We’ll pay anything for space,’ ” said Global Chairman Guy Fox.
The company, which has agreements with steamship lines guaranteeing space on freighters for shipments it’s overseeing, picked up at least 50 new clients last year, or one-fifth of its total roster of customers. “We had to pull our boots on and get busy to stay on top of everything,” Fox said.
