The
gains also come on the heels of the top quarter in the Port’s 104-year history. Strong export growth of 6.5 percent in October buoyed the Port’s overall numbers as shippers turned to the Port of Long Beach for reliable service. A slight decline in imports indicated that retailers of clothing, electronics and other consumer goods apparently stocked up early for the rapidly approaching
shopping season that starts with “Black Friday” — the day after Thanksgiving.

“We had an early peak in July and August, with much of the inventory for the holiday shopping season coming early. On the export side, we’ve seen increases for the past two months, as shipping lines choose Long Beach for its reliability and service,” said Port of Long Beach CEO Jon Slangerup. “Year to date, we’re up more than 5 percent, so 2015 is shaping up to be one of our best years ever.”

A total of 619,983 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) moved through the Port in October. Imports were down 0.8 percent to 307,995 TEUs. Exports increased to 128,308 TEUs. Empty containers continued to rise, climbing 20.8 percent to 183,681 TEUs. Empties are sent back overseas to be refilled with goods.

The National Retail Federation has forecast that retail sales in November and December would increase 3.7 percent from last year. Through the first 10 months of 2015, Long Beach cargo was up 5.4 percent overall compared to the same period last year. Volume is reaching pre-recession levels of trade and demonstrating the ability of Long Beach industry stakeholders to handle high
amounts of cargo.

With an ongoing $4 billion program to modernize its facilities, the Port of Long Beach continues to build the Port of the Future, by investing in capital and service improvements that will bring long-term, environmentally sustainable growth.

The four 30-story high electric cranes are the largest ever constructed by Konecranes, and currently stand taller than any other marine cranes in North America. The cranes were ordered by the Port of Houston Authority amid ongoing infrastructure expansion to prepare in part for the larger Post-Panamax container vessels that will call at the Port Authority’s facilities.

“These cranes can move a loaded container twice as fast as their predecessors,” Port Authority Executive Director Roger Guenther said. “They will bring our Barbours Cut terminal capacity from 1.25 million TEUs to 2.5 million TEUs.”

With a 65-long ton capacity and the ability to handle two 20-foot containers simultaneously, the cranes’ capacity increases to 80 long tons with use of a cargo hook. The first operational crane began discharge maneuvers early this morning with a 4,250 TEU capacity container ship. The cranes were ordered as part of a $1 billion, five-year modernisation plan that also includes dredging and land-side infrastructure and wharf

At the time, the parties agreed to allow an increase in tariffs equal to half of the inflation rate, with a maximum of 1% per annum, for a period of three years. In addition, the Port Authority applies a number of targeted measures to encourage specific sectors, such as container transhipment.

Sea port tariffs

In the container sector, the Port Authority is aiming to increase the number of trans-shipment containers. After these containers have arrived by sea-going vessel, they travel directly from the terminal to another European port by sea. The port tariff for such a container is about €8 on average. The current discount of €2.50 will be increased to €3.75 in 2016 per deep-sea container. For feeder containers, the existing trans-shipment discount of €2.50 per container will remain in place for the coming two years. In this way, the Port Authority wants to encourage the market to ship a lot more trans-shipment cargo via Rotterdam. It also maintains the extra incentive for container vessels to call at Rotterdam twice whenever they visit Europe. When deep-sea container vessels (sailing between continents) visit the second time, the tariff is 25% of the normal rate. This encourages the largest, heavily laden container vessels arriving in Northwest Europe to first call at Rotterdam to unload part of their cargo, then dock in a few other ports before returning to Rotterdam on their way back to Asia, so that they can leave Europe fully laden.

In conformity with the three-year agreement made with the VNPI, the tariff for tankers carrying crude oil will remain 1.5% below inflation again in 2016. This means a 0.5% fall in the tariff in 2016.

The existing discount for clean ships, the Environmental Ship Index (ESI), will be continued. Ships which score 31 points on the index receive a 10% discount on the ship section of the port tariff. This discount is doubled if ships have relatively low nitrogen emissions. This means that a ship must score at least 31 points on the NOx emission section of the ESI.

It was agreed that Rotterdam’s ‘rail product’ would continue to be strengthened in the coming years by continuing to contribute to new rail connections, for instance via the Rail Incubator project.

Inland port tariffs
Since 1 January 2015 Rotterdam and the Drechtsteden have been classed as one area, so that skippers will only need one subscription instead of two and the statements will be simpler. In addition, the environmental discount will be continued and attempts will be made to make the inland port tariff system more customer-friendly. For 2016 this means that, as with the sea port tariffs, it has been agreed that the tariffs will be linked to the inflation index, at half the inflation rate, up to a maximum of 1% per annum. This means that the inland port tariffs will be index-linked at 0.5% in 2016.