Port of Los Angeles: Encyclopedia II - Port of Los Angeles - Shipping

Port of Los Angeles - Shipping

The container volume was 7.4 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in fiscal year 2004 and 6.7 million TEUs in fiscal year 2003. The Port is the busiest port in the United States by container volume, the 8th busiest containerport in the world and the 5th busiest internationally when combined with the neighboring Port of Long Beach. The top trading partners in 2004 were

1. China ($68.8 billion)
2. Japan ($24.1 billion)
3. Taiwan ($10.8 billion)
4. Thailand ($6.7 billion)
5. South Korea ($5.6 billion)

The most imported types of goods were, in order: furniture; apparel; toys and sporting goods; vehicle and vehicle parts; and electronic products.

From 2002 to the present, the Port has had a large backlog of ships waiting to be unloaded at any given time. Many analysts believe that the Port's traffic may have exceeded its physical capacity as well as the capacity of local freeway and railroad systems. The chronic congestion at the Port is beginning to cause ripple effects throughout the American economy and is disrupting Just In Time inventory practices at many companies.

The port is served by the Pacific Harbor Line (PHL) railroad. From the PHL the intermodal railroad cars go north to Los Angeles via the Alameda Corridor.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Shipping", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki