Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia and Harbor Commission President Lou Anne Bynum are leading a Port of Long Beach business development trip to South Korea and Japan for vital meetings with shipping industry leaders.
The delegation, which includes Port Executive Director Mario Cordero and Chief Commercial Officer Noel Hacegaba, will discuss shipping trends and seek to gain insight into future business opportunities for the second-busiest container port in the US.
The group will stop in Seoul, Tokyo and Yokkaichi, a sister city of Long Beach, over the next week (October 17, 2017 onwards).
Earlier in 2017, the industry realigned the vessel-sharing alliances that allow groups of companies to join forces to compete against the rest of the industry.
Ocean carriers routinely transport containers of allied companies.
The changes in alliances also affect the ports that the carriers visit.
This has meant that Port of Long Beach has seen increasing cargo movement due to improving consumer demand and the port’s ability to meet the challenges of the alliance restructuring.
A new technical paper titled 'Port of Long Beach: The Evolving Quest for Efficiency' by Dr Noel Hacegaba, Chief Commercial and Operations Officer, Port of Long Beach, has explored how the terminal is upgrading infrastructure and optimizing rail capacity
Long Beach is seeing record volumes despite losing Hanjin Shipping, a major ocean carrier customer of the port, to bankruptcy.
In addition, the Port of Long Beach is undergoing US$4 billion in capital improvement projects this decade to improve the efficiency and environmental sustainability of cargo movement through the port.
Garcia said: “With the recent changes in the shipping industry, this is a crucial time to meet face-to-face with our customers to expand business opportunities for the Port of Long Beach.
“These relationships are key to generating even more economic development in Long Beach.”
Bynum commented: “Our business development outreach is one of the main reasons that the Port of Long Beach is known for its customer service.
“Our customers deeply value these meetings. It’s important for us to reaffirm our commitment to being adaptable, nimble and responsive to industry concerns.”
