Return to 
Late Breaking News

Labor shortage idles ships
at LA-Long Beach

Updated 10:26 a.m. ET, Wed Jul 21, 2004

The JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE

Ocean carriers continue to wrestle with delays amid a shortage of longshore labor at the Port of Los Angeles-Long Beach.  The Marine Exchange of Southern California in an e-mail notice Tuesday said the Pacific Maritime Association reported it was 25 gangs short Monday night, leaving eight vessels unable to be worked including Gosport Maersk, CMA CGM Sapphire, and Ever Result.  On the day shift, Marex said the PMA was short 34 gangs, leaving 12 ships idle at berth, including CMA CGM Sapphire, Ever Result, Hyundai Explorer, Wan Hai 306, Hanjin Washington, and APL England.

The labor shortage is also delaying intermodal rail shipments heading to inland destinations. Sources in Southern California said some ships have bypassed LA-Long Beach to offload cargo in Oakland. The containers are then moved by rail back to Los Angeles.

In other news.  The Union Pacific Railroad earlier said it plans to increase rates for intermodal shipments by 9.5 percent beginning Aug. 17 while Burlington Northern Santa Fe will implement a similar rate increase starting on the same date in part to help both carriers improve services to handle the surge in container cargo.  The increase will reportedly boost the cost of moving a 40-foot container out of California by rail to about $95.