Pete Buttigieg Visits LA, Long Beach Ports To Discuss Cargo Logjam
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was visiting the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach Tuesday in order to meet with local leaders about the ongoing supply chain crisis.
Buttigieg was taking a boat tour of the ports and then was set to hold a news conference with L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia.
The trip comes one day after California Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a plan to invest $2.3 billion in California ports as part of his proposed state budget.
"Our supply chain challenges require both near-term and long-term solutions. I applaud Gov. Newsom for meeting the moment with bold leadership," Port of L.A. Executive Director Gene Seroka said in a statement Monday. "The Governor's budget allocates $2.3 billion for ports to address bottlenecks in our supply chain, advance our efforts to decarbonize the freight system, and ensure a robust and resilient workforce continues to move goods on behalf of the state and nation."
Dozens of cargo ships have been anchored offshore from the ports of L.A. and Long Beach for months, leading to a supply chain crisis nationwide. The logjam is due partly to the shortage of warehouse workers and truck drivers to pick up goods.
Representatives for the ports said Monday that there are 12 ships waiting at anchor within 40 miles of the San Pedro Port Complex, and another 93 ships are waiting further off the coast or still approaching the ports.
Once the ships are unloaded, however, it has lead to a new litany of problems, with surrounding neighborhoods being used for storage, trucks idling for hours in residential streets and even property damage.
In October, President Joe Biden announced the Port of L.A. would begin operating 24/7, a move that had already been made at the Port of Long Beach. At the time, there were about 70 ships waiting to get into one of the ports.
The ports changed its queuing process, now allowing ships leaving Asia to get in line upon departure, which allows ships to no longer race to get to the ports and instead are anchoring outside the region's air quality basin as they wait for their turn to enter the port complex.
The ports also announced fee on companies which have import containers linger at marine terminals, but the fee has been repeatedly delayed due to progress reducing the number of containers, with the ports announcing on Monday a 45% combined decline in aging cargo since the fee was announced on Oct. 25. The policy to implement fees was developed in coordination with the Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Port of Long Beach and supply chain stakeholders.
(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)