Shipping
The container volume was 7.8 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) in calendar year 2010. The Port is the busiest port in the United States by container volume, the 16th busiest container port in the world and the 6th busiest internationally when combined with the neighboring Port of Long Beach. The top trading partners in 2010 were
- China ($120.7 billion)
- Japan ($35.3 billion)
- Taiwan ($10.7 billion)
- South Korea ($10.1 billion)
- Thailand ($7.2 billion)
The most imported types of goods in calendar year 2010 were, in order: furniture; footwear; toys; automobile parts; and women's and infant apparel.
During the 2002 West Coast port labor lockout, the Port had a large backlog of ships waiting to be unloaded at any given time. Many analysts believe that the Port's traffic may have exceeded its physical capacity as well as the capacity of local freeway and railroad systems. The chronic congestion at the Port is beginning to cause ripple effects throughout the American economy and is disrupting Just In Time inventory practices at many companies.
The port is served by the Pacific Harbor Line (PHL) railroad. From the PHL the intermodal railroad cars go north to Los Angeles via the Alameda Corridor.
There are plans to deepen the port to 50 feet, which is about deep enough to accommodate the draft of the world's biggest container ships such as the PS-class Emma Mærsk and the future Maersk Triple E class.
Read more about this topic: Port Of Los Angeles
Famous quotes containing the word shipping:
“Talk of a divinity in man! Look at the teamster on the highway, wending to market by day or night; does any divinity stir within him? His highest duty to fodder and water his horses! What is his destiny to him compared with the shipping interests?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I need not tell you of the inadequacy of the American shipping marine on the Pacific Coast.... For this reason it seems to me that there is no subject to which Congress can better devote its attention in the coming session than the passage of a bill which shall encourage our merchant marine in such a way as to establish American lines directly between New York and the eastern ports and South American ports, and both our Pacific Coast ports and the Orient and the Philippines.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)