LA’s Seroka says ports of LA & Long Beach increased market share in 2023

In his ‘State of the Port of Los Angeles’ address on January 10th, Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Eugene Seroka reported that the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach increased their national market share by 3 percent in 2023.

Seroka spoke at the annual event organized by the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association (PMSA) where he said: “We were pleased to see a 3% bump in our West Coast market share compared to East and Gulf Coast ports. Working together with our partners at the Port of Long Beach, we have made San Pedro Bay the country's biggest gateway – nearly double the size of the next largest port complex.”

Seroka went on to describe that since the second half of 2023, the Port of Los Angeles returned to positive container flow, with 5 straight months of year-on-year growth saying, “While … our 2023 total volume was more than 8.6 million twenty-foot units, down about 13% compared to 2022. That’s a dramatic recovery from the decrease of more than 30% we saw after the first quarter of the year.”

Seroka said that on the import side, “We handled roughly 4.5 million TEUs, down about 10% from 2022. And our exports had the highest volume since 2020, up more than 7% year over year.”

Seroka said that he remains optimistic about the Port’s future because of new infrastructure investments that will boost Port productivity in the future, noting, “This year, we will complete the $73 million Pier 400 Rail Corridor Expansion. We’re also continuing design work on the Terminal Island Maritime Support Facility along with its related road and rail grade separations. At the Pier 300 Fenix Marine Services terminal, we're in final design for an on-dock rail yard expansion that we’ll break ground on in 2025. [Along with] Seismic upgrades continue at our Shell Oil and PBF Energy liquid bulk facilities. And this past November we also began construction of a new concrete wharf at the Pasha breakbulk terminal.”

Seroka added, “We continue to make technological advancements to enhance operations and ensure the efficient flow of cargo. And we do that through our Port Optimizer and our Cyber Resilience Center.”