Port of Long Beach

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The Port of Long Beach is the second busiest seaport in the United States and the tenth busiest port in the world. It is in Long Beach, California and it adjoins the separate Port of Los Angeles. It is the fifth busiest gateway by value when compared with all U.S. freight gateways—land, air, and sea.

Part of the Port of Long Beach

In 2003, merchandise trade passing through the Port of Long Beach was valued at $96 billion: 12 percent of the value of total U.S. international waterborne trade. These freight shipments accounted for more than 9 percent of all U.S. waterborne exports and 13 percent of imports. The Port is a major gateway for imports with inbound shipments accounting for 82 percent of the value of freight it handled in 2003.

By weight, the facility ranks sixth among all water gateways, handling 51 million tons or 4 percent of total U.S. international waterborne freight tonnage. Although Long Beach is a significant gateway for both imports and exports, inbound freight shipments account for 72 percent of the tonnage handled by the port in 2003. Between 1999 and 2003, the tonnage of cargo handled at Long Beach increased 26 percent, due mostly to growth in imports from 27 million to 37 million tons (or 37 percent). Exports rose slightly from 13 million to 14 million tons.

Long Beach is primarily a container port although it also handles noncontainerized bulk cargo. In 2003, the port handled about 3.8 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) carrying international imports and exports. This accounted for 18 percent of U.S. containerized TEUs handled at all our nation’s seaports. About 78 percent of the Port's containerized cargo was inbound.

Nearly 2,800 vessels called at Port of Long Beach in 2003. Container vessels were the most frequent type to call at the port, accounting for 48 percent. About 27 percent of the calls were by tanker ships.

China was the port’s leading origin country for imports by weight of shipments, followed by Mexico, and Hong Kong in 2003. China was the leading destination for exports leaving Long Beach, followed by South Korea, and Japan. The leading foreign seaports for cargo leaving or arriving at Long Beach were Port of Hong Kong, China’s Yantian, and South Korea’s Port of Pusan.

In 2003, the top containerized imports were machinery, electrical equipment, motor vehicles, clothing, and toys while the top exports were machinery, plastics, electrical equipment, meat, and chemicals.

In recent years, the large volume of Chinese goods imported by the United States has created significant congestion at the port, especially leading up to the Christmas season. This has lead to increased air pollution from idling ships and trains, which are a significant source of diesel pollution in the Los Angeles Basin. The backup is due to several bottlenecks, starting with the container terminals, and then the congested local freeways and railroads. Attempts to reduce port congestion by introducing 24-hour port operations have encountered resistance from the container companies, shippers, companies that receive the goods, unions, and local citizens.

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