Port sets record for cargo in February
Officials cite stepped up production in China
Continuing its string of record-breaking months, the Port of Long Beach on Wednesday reported its busiest February ever and the largest year-over-year increase for a single month.
It was especially noteworthy as February tends to see cargo downturns due to the Lunar New Year celebrations, during which many of the factories in east Asia close for two weeks. But China this year, according to a port news release, has largely worked through the 2021 holiday to fill back orders and meet rising consumer online order demands amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Port of Los Angeles will release February numbers on Tuesday.
In February, Port of Long Beach dockworkers and terminal operators moved 771,735 twenty-foot equivalent units, the standard measurement used for cargo volumes, representing a 43.3% increase from the same month last year, when China, the United States’ largest trading partner, was getting hit hard by the coronavirus, forcing factories to shut down.
It was the largest yearover-year increase for a single month in the port’s 110year history.
It also was the first time the port handled more than 700,000 TEUs in February, exceeding the previous record, set in 2018, by 109,945 TEUs.
Mario Cordero, executive director for the Port of Long Beach, said the supply chain workforce was “giving its all” to keep cargo moving despite positive coronavirus cases causing absences.
“New records are being set,” he said, “demonstrating how busy they have been.”
But supply chain logistics have suffered with the surge in cargo, prompting the port to collaborate with industry partners.
“Our top priority is vaccinating our essential frontline workers, both for their sake and the sake of the economy,” Long Beach harbor commission President Frank Colonna said in a written statement.
Vaccines targeting longshore and other port workers in Long Beach and Los Angeles have begun rolling out.
The port, Colonna said, is still advocating increased vaccine distribution to keep supply chain workers healthy and maintain cargo flows.
Both ports in the San Pedro Bay have seen historic cargo surges since July.
Imports in Long Beach jumped by 50.3% in February while exports declined 4.9%.
Empty containers moving through the port, meanwhile, climbed by 69.6%.
Two Ralphs and a Food 4 Less will close by May in Los Angeles, a decision the parent company says was accelerated by a city mandate requiring workers earn an extra $5 hourly in “hazard pay” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cincinnati-based Kroger said it’s shuttering the underperforming stores — Ralphs at 9616 W. Pico Blvd. and 3300 W. Slauson Ave. and a Food 4 Less at 5420 W. Sunset Blvd. The stores will close May 15, affecting 289 employees.
Ralphs spokesman John Votava said the companies hope to move as many displaced workers as possible to neighboring Ralphs and Food 4 Less locations.
“We operate seven Ralphs and Food 4 Less stores within a 4-mile radius,” he said. “We’ll still operate 65 stores in Los Angeles after these closures.”
Kroger recently announced plans to shutter a Food 4 Less and Ralphs in Long Beach in the face of a similar pay hike that requires large grocery stores in the city to pay workers an extra $4 an hour in hazard pay.
Those stores are scheduled to close April 17.
The average grocery store worker in Los Angeles makes $17.51 an hour, according to a report by Los Angeles’s chief legislative analyst, which cited ZipRecruiter. Kroger said Wednesday that the average L.A. Ralphs and Food4Less employee rate is $18 an hour.
In a statement Wednesday, Kroger said its stores operate on razor-thin profit margins. Hazard pay, the company said, makes it “financially unsustainable” to keep the three open.