D uring the pandemic, schools and businesses across the United States began to close or go remote at ank speed. For U.S. ports, the description “open and operational” became not merely a status report but also a testament to the ports’ resilience.
create the world’s rst transpaci c green shipping corridor between ports in the United States and China. As part of the effort, the Los Angeles port is teaming up with the Port of Shanghai as well as with C40 Cities, a global network of mayors working collaboratively to address climate issues.
Multiple discussions about the corridor were conducted among
wrote in a January 2022 report outlining the ports’ “daunting challenges.” Yet through all of this, numerous notable developments indicate that the ports have continued to move full speed ahead. SUSTAIN THE ENVIRONMENT Increases in cargo imports, as well as supply chain slowdowns forcing container vessels to remain at anchor for excessive periods, resulted in severe congestion at port terminals. This, in turn, led to increases in freight-related emissions damaging to air quality in port communities. It is a law of nature that shifting air cannot be contained by region— either on land or at sea. “There’s no dividing line in the middle of the air,” says Chris Cannon, chief sustainability of cer and director of environmental management at the Port of Los Angeles, the busiest container port in the Western Hemisphere. With that in mind, in 2021 the Port of Los Angeles announced a partnership to
The pandemic ultimately unleashed a supply chain logjam that has yet to fully clear. The ports, however, have not allowed the pandemic to set them adrift. In conversations with port of cials from coast to coast, Inbound Logistics uncovered an array of initiatives to improve port services and solutions, including signi cant investments in sustainability, infrastructure projects, and cargo handling. In what may have been the understatement of the year, the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics wrote this at the beginning of 2022: “With a perfect storm of existing capacity limits, rapid demand increases, and labor shortages from initial pandemic reductions, container ports are facing major challenges in moving cargo.” This perfect storm, the bureau noted, created conditions in which ports might be disinclined to bankroll improvements. “Excess capacity means idle resources, and ports are less likely to invest in greater capacity before market indicators signal the need to expand,” the bureau
interested parties in the closing months of 2022. The discussions included the of ce of John Kerry, the former U.S. senator and secretary of state who now serves as special presidential envoy for climate, a cabinet-level position that leads the Biden administration’s efforts to combat global climate change. “Ports have a key role to play in spurring the transition to a green and resilient shipping sector,” Kerry says. “Their leadership—and their collaborative efforts—can help us reach a tipping point in the uptake of zero- emission fuels and technologies. “This will help ensure that the sector becomes aligned with the goal to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C,” he adds. The Los Angeles-Shanghai partners aim to steadily reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the movement of cargo and to begin transitioning to zero-carbon fueled ships by 2030. The Los Angeles-Shanghai corridor could be a maiden voyage. “We hope that this is the beginning of a network of corridors,” Cannon says, adding that the vision is for several such corridors to be created around the globe. The Port of Long Beach, which often partners with the Los Angeles port on clean air and other initiatives, recently joined the green corridor project with Shanghai. “Long Beach has joined us to identify best American practices, set goals, and overall make plans to reduce the carbon intensity of cargo movement between Shanghai and Los Angeles,” Cannon says. Meanwhile, the Port of Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles continue to collaborate on a variety of other anti-air
APM Terminals Mobile is doubling its capacity for future growth to 1 million+ TEUs in 2025, supported by a harbor channel deepening and widening project to 50-foot depth, which will enable larger vessels to call the port. The harbor improvements will make Mobile the deepest harbor in the U.S. Gulf, and attract more ocean carrier services.
124 Inbound Logistics • January 2023
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